Blazing Darkness
by NOEPNOPENOEP
Summary: One year after the Night Howler incident Judy and Nick are settling into a casual life of crime solving. But when a new threat rises up to strike at the heart of the ZPD, how far will Judy and Nick go to finish the job? A tense three-act story that will explore the bond between Nick and Judy, as well as test their friendship as the future of Zootopia, hangs in the balance.
1. Prologue

It had been over a year since the Night Howler incident. Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps had found the evidence necessary to incriminate the mastermind behind the incident, Bellwether and put her behind bars. Afterwards, Nick endured a brutal six months of the Zootopia Police Academy, managing to come out on the other side as Judy's brand new partner at the Zootopia Police Department.

Judy and Nick had become unlikely friends, best friends even. They saw each other almost daily, hung out after their shifts and were described by some as lovers, however, that was an accusation which was quickly shot down by both individuals whenever it was brought up. No, they were closer to a brother and sister, practically family. They cared for each other deeply and their relationship caused them to become good partners.

Since his graduation, they'd had a quiet time solving small time cases such as drag racers speeding down the streets among other petty crime. Judy and Nick, due to their work on the Night Howler case, were given challenging cases and they soon became quite adept at detective work. While they were certainly no strangers to action, Judy, and Nick as well as the rest of the precinct decided that they should leave any combat to those more suited to it. After all, a large mammal need not fool around with Kevlar vests and synthetic material when they are strong enough to wear plate metal with ease.

However, as things calmed down for the officers of the ZPD, another threat was ready and waiting to strike out at the city and break apart the bond of two very important Officers.


	2. Act 1 Chapter 1

It was yet another perfect day in the city of Zootopia and two certain ZPD Officers were meeting up at their usual morning hang out spot, Jitter's. Judy and Nick always met up there, and while Judy wasn't a big fan of the coffee, Nick adored it. They were like that in a lot of aspects, two sides of the same coin, different yet still inseparable.

They sat at their usual table near the back of the café as Nick sipped at his coffee lazily and Judy demolished a small bagel. As she tore apart the baked good, she eyed Nick suspiciously. He was usually a little more awake than this, he hadn't even made a bad joke yet or quipped about her eating habits. She swallowed her mouthful of buttered bread and attempted to make eye contact with him. "Rough night big guy?"

Nick kept staring into his coffee, swirling the dark liquid around a little before looking up and smiling at the bunny. "I'm fine Carrots, don't you worry about a thing," Nick smiled as he observed his partner who still looked a bit concerned. "Wow, if there were any more crumbs on this table we'd have to call in a 187."

Judy smiled after that. "Can you murder bread?"

Nick laughed quietly before going back to his coffee. In truth, he had just had a bad dream. It was odd; he hadn't had night terrors for quite a while. When he woke from his nightmare he had thought about calling Judy, but looked at his clock and went back to bed. He still felt a little uncomfortable about the whole thing, but he decided he wouldn't show it. "Come on; let's get down to the precinct. We're gonna be late for roll call."

Judy nodded and they travelled down to the train station, hopped onto the Inner Line to Savannah Central, and walked down to ZPD. The two clocked in, Nick drained the last of his coffee and they walked into the noisy, crowded briefing room, sitting down in their shared chair. It seemed odd at first but they both fit on it quite easily due to its size and they were only there once a day.

Chief Bogo walked into the room with his usual hardened expression and took his place behind the lectern at the front of the room. "Alright, alright! Everybody sit!"

Everyone quickly settled into their seats and awaited their assignments for the day. Something that I believe was apparent on almost everyone's mind was that Chief Bogo looked angry. "This isn't going to be easy to put lightly so I'm just going to come out and say it. Last night seventeen animals were reported to have not returned to their homes. These reports came in from all over the city, and are still unconfirmed."

There was a quiet murmuring as everyone contemplated this fact. Judy looked up at Nick who seemed fixated on Bogo and soon she turned her attention back to the cape buffalo. "Now I hope this is simply a case of some adolescents running amok with some drinks, but to be safe… Officers Fangmeyer, Wolford…"

The Chief went on, handing out assignments to the officers until, in the classic tradition, there were only two left. Nick and Judy. "Officers Wilde and Hopps, you are to inspect the Palm Hotel, where two individuals went missing from their hotel room last night." Bogo gave them the case file and took his place back behind the lectern. "Standard procedure, warrants will be issued if required and if you find the culprits behind this, attempt to capture. That is all, dismissed."

Judy and Nick found a table and opened up the case file, as many others were doing. "Alright, missing mammals…Mister and Missus Brown. Palm Hotel huh? That's the big building in Sahara Square," mused Nick. "How'd a couple go missing there? Shouldn't there be cameras everywhere in that building?"

Judy frowned. "There should, so that should be our first stop. Let's go grab a car."

Nick smiled. "Can we hit the casinos after we're done? It's Sahara Square after all."

The bunny giggled. "Feeling a little confident Officer Wilde?" she jabbed as they headed out and into one of the standard issue cars.

"There hasn't been a kidnapping in over a year. Not since the Night Howlers," Nick replied with a laugh. "Like I said, it's Sahara Square. Casinos, drinks…We'll probably have found them by this afternoon."

Judy didn't like to admit that he was right, but Nick usually was. He had a knack for seeing things as they were, without complicating them with wild theories or assumptions. It had its bad moments but it was a skill Judy valued in him as it usually made their lives a little easier.

It was a short drive over to Sahara Square and the subsequent Palm Hotel. The building was nigh impossible to miss, being over a thousand feet high. The duo walked into the main lobby and found it fairly deserted, not surprising considering the time of day. Most inhabitants of Sahara Square were nocturnal and opted to spend the day asleep in their rooms.

They walked up to the reception which thankfully for Judy was not manned by a sloth. Instead, a large male zebra sat behind the desk and looked up at them. "Can I help you?" he asked curiously.

Judy was always happy to do introductions and beat Nick to the point. "Officers Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde, ZPD, nice to meetcha!" she said enthusiastically to which Nick smiled and rolled his eyes.

The zebra nodded and looked around before replying. "I assume you're here about the missing couple. What do you need?"

"Access to the security camera footage, and their room," Judy responded, quick as a flash.

The zebra nodded once again and got up from his desk, returning with two keys. "This one-" he held up a brass key with a wooden tag, "-is for the room. The number is on the tag. The other is for the security room. You can find that right down that corridor, fourth door on the left," he said grinning happily.

Judy smiled, taking the keys. "Which do you want?" she said looking over to Nick.

He laughed a little. "You mean we don't get to stick together? You're going to break my little heart Hopps," Nick said smiling, much to Judy's chagrin. "I'll take the security room. Have fun up there!" he said taking the key and heading off down the designated corridor. Judy rolled her eyes and made for the lift.

The number on the key tag was 724, which meant floor seven. She pushed the small button and waited, her foot thumping quietly on the floor as the lift ascended quickly. The doors opened at her stop and she looked around for the correct room. It took a while but eventually she found herself on the right track. "721, 722, 723 aaaand 724 here it is!" she stopped outside the door and took a deep breath before knocking firmly on the door. "ZPD! If you're in there, open up!" she got no response and so repeated her message before opening the door with the key and heading inside. It was then that her radio crackled to life. "Hey, Carrots? What's it look like up there? I'm not finding much."

To be honest she didn't quite know. It just looked like a standard hotel room, it didn't even look occupied. "A whole lot of nothing, it's empty up here. They must have been out or something," she radioed back. She inspected the whole room, top to bottom and found nothing she could use. It seemed a little…off to her. A couple, out here own their own; the room pristine and not one scrap of evidence.

"Carrots I've got nothing down here, these tapes are clean," came the voice of Nick from her radio. This only aroused her suspicion further.

"Who reported these two missing again?" asked Judy down her radio.

"The hotel, apparently. Why?" replied Nick. Suddenly it all clicked in her mind. The hotel wouldn't report missing guests, they'd just assume the two were having a late night or something. It wasn't the hotel's business whether or not someone was in their room at a specific time.

"Nick, I think we've been played," she said quietly into her radio as she left the room. She got no response as she reached the lifts. "Nick? Are you there?"

Static.

Suddenly, Judy felt the lifts were a bad idea and made for the stairwell before trying to reach Nick again. "Officer Wilde, Nick, please respond."

The white noise that was her response was deafening. She felt afraid and checked over her shoulder as she descended. Maybe her radio wasn't working? "ZPD dispatch this is Officer Hopps, 10-7…3?" Judy had never quite gotten the hang of the callouts but she was getting better.

"10-4 Officer Hopps," came the voice of Benjamin Clawhauser. "Reading you five by four."

Right. So it wasn't her radio. "I have lost radio contact with Officer Wilde, can you confirm his location?" There was a muttered 10-4 and a standby, she managed to get to the fourth floor before a response came back. "Officer Wilde is not answering his radio, confirm his whereabouts if possible."

Judy raced down the stairs and burst into the lobby to the surprise of a few citizens before rushing down the hallway to the security room, only to find it empty. There were definitely signs of a struggle. A stool was knocked over, equipment was thrown about, and one of the monitors was broken. To make things worse Judy saw claw marks and blood. Her mouth dropped open as she took a step back, she could feel tears start to well up in her eyes at the very thought of Nick being gone. But that was when she heard it.

She turned quickly and moving down the corridor slowly were a pair of wolves, who immediately started running at her as she saw them. Judy let out a loud squeal and ran in the opposite direction. They kept on her down the various corridors before she ducked into a side room and hid from them beneath a table in the corner. She pulled at her radio, turned the volume way down and whispered into it. "11-99…207, 11-99, code 3…" Judy could make out the panicked voice of Clawhauser on the other end; she only prayed that there were some units in Sahara Square. She heard the door open and she quickly flicked off the radio.

"Come out little bunny…We'll take you to your fox buddy…" Judy could hear the wolf sniffing the air, and knew she was running out of time. Had she given the right callout? She couldn't quite remember if 11-99 meant 'officer down' or 'officer in trouble', not like it made much difference, and was a 207 a kidnapping or a missing person? Nick was so much better at this than her; he could recite codes and phonetics and even knew hand signals. Just thinking of Nick at the time made her want to cry, but she held back, knowing she needed more time. Luckily she heard sirens in the distance, coming closer. The other wolf ran into the room and Judy took her radio and tried to broadcast what she could hear.

"Come on, we're screwed if they catch us…" came a different voice.

"She's in here! I can smell it."

"One bunny won't matter if the whole of precinct one gets here before we get to the car, now let's go!"

Judy could hear a growl and heard them leave the room as the sirens came closer and closer. She turned the radio back up where Clawhauser was begging for a response from Judy. She found herself walking back down the corridor to the security room, ignoring the shouting coming through the radio as she stared in disbelief at the scene. She pulled up the radio and weakly responded. "I'm here. Officer Wilde is…Officer Wilde…" Judy broke down into tears and even broadcasted it by accident. She could hear the cars pulling up outside and she stood there weeping as her backup stormed into the building. She could barely even hear the Officers trying to talk to her or calling in their findings. All she could focus on was the ransacked room in front of her, and how her best friend was now missing.


	3. Act 1 Chapter 2

ZPD Dispatch called back all Officers for an emergency meeting on the order of Chief Bogo. Judy came back to the ZPD looking very sullen, however, what she didn't notice as she walked into the briefing room, was that many of the other officers looked the same. She also didn't notice that the room seemed much quieter than it usually did.

Chief Bogo came in and stood behind his lectern, sighing heavily. He didn't even have to quiet the crowd, many just sat there in an uneasy silence. "Many of you have probably already noticed the lack of a few Officers among us."

There was a quick turning of heads as those less informed surveyed the room before the Chief continued. "The ZPD has become a target. The missing mammal cases were red herrings, so to speak. They were in fact, traps; Laid by an unknown group with large number and coverage. Not long after you all departed we had calls from all districts, noting radio silence or the disappearance of a partner. Some teams never came back. Perhaps, some of you can elaborate for the fortunate few who were not targeted."

Heads turned at the sound of a chair screeching against the floor, caused by Officer Wolford. "Fangmeyer and I were downtown, inspecting the house of one the 'missing' individuals. We wanted to look inside and couldn't get a hold of the family, so I went off to call for a warrant while Fangmeyer looked around. But when I went back to get him, he was gone. I looked all over but couldn't find a trace of 'im," he said with a sigh before sitting back down.

Another chair screech and Officer Delgato took the stage, "I was with Joe 'round the canal district, lookin' all over for any clues to follow. Except, we got a bit separated. After a while, all I heard was a big splash with nothin' else, like someone fell in one of the canals; But I couldn't find anything."

As the lion sat back down, the Chief looked over to Judy, who in return grimaced. "What about you Hopps? I hear you had quite a difficult time." Judy didn't have to have eyes in the back of her head; she could feel all the eyes in the room turn their attention to her.

She composed herself a little and tried her hardest to give a full explanation. "Officer Wilde and I... We…We went to the Palm Hotel. I went upstairs to check a room and he went to check the cameras," she sniffled a little. "I c-couldn't find anything, a-and he w-wouldn't talk to me, so I went down and h-he was gone and-"

"Hopps!" The shout made her jump but it stopped her babbling. "Take a deep breath, and continue."

The bunny nodded and took a few deep breaths, wiping her eyes with a paw before continuing. "After he went silent, I thought I'd go check everything was okay. When I got down there, the room was empty and trashed. There was broken glass, claw marks and…and blood a-and-

"Alright Hopps, that's enou-"

"There's more sir." Bogo looked slightly surprised but nodded. "After I found the…the room, I was chased by two wolves. They chased after me and tried to take me but the sirens scared them off. That's all," she said quietly as she sat down.

Bogo considered the new information. "Wolves. Did you hear or see anything that'd give an I.D?"

Judy sighed quietly. She usually enjoyed being the centre of attention but, not like this. "Uh, they said something about a car…Their voices sounded quite deep. They uh…they had grey fur and long black jackets."

Bogo looked up. "Did anyone see any individuals matching that description?"

There was a mumbled answer which, after a quick shout from Bogo, became a proper one. "N-Not since a year ago, at the Asylum," came the voice of Officer Wolford.

Bogo blinked as he recalled the events. Judy also thought back to that time at Clifftop Asylum. She and Nick had managed to sneak past an entire squad of wolves on guard duty by starting a howl. Now that he mentioned it, the descriptions seemed to match up. It was only when Bogo started talking again that she stopped reminiscing.

"Alright listen up. I want all of you to be extra careful until I give you further orders. Since no one knows about this except us, keep a low profile and don't talk to the press. In the meantime, we'll launch an investigation at Clifftop; it's our only lead at this time. Take the rest of the day off, all of you. Dismissed."

Chairs scraped the floor as the Officers got up and filed out of the room before clocking out for the day. Judy, however, couldn't move. She felt paws on her shoulder and heard the promises that 'everything would be alright'. Everyone knew Judy and Nick were inseparable, they were almost never seen apart and anytime Bogo tried to split them up they wouldn't work as well on duty.

And now she was on her own, she didn't quite know what to do. She could take the Chief's offer and go home to try and relax a little. While she still felt a little uncomfortable about it, she decided to head back to her new apartment. She'd managed to get a new place after saving her cash and had furnished it very nicely.

The trip back was very uneventful, thankfully, and soon Judy found herself back in her apartment. She locked the door, made herself some food and collapsed on the couch, trying to forget everything. She flicked on the TV and cycled through the channels to the news as she munched on her meal.

"Thank you, and now back to tonight's main story. Earlier this morning the ZPD took quite a hit, as ZPD Officers all over the city were abducted by an unknown group. No group has come forward to take responsibility, and the ZPD does not have a response at this time."

Judy simply flicked off the TV and shut her eyes. She felt completely overwhelmed. She simply relaxed and let sleep take her.


	4. Act 1 Chapter 3

"Ohoho of course not! Haha, he is." There was a quiet whoosh as the weapon fired followed by a yelp of pain as Nick fell to the ground, coughing and wheezing as he rubbed at the blue substance on his neck. Judy immediately rushed over to help her fallen friend, fearing the worst. Somehow she felt she'd done this before, but it felt different.

Nick writhed on the ground in agony, crying out as he tried to fight back. "You're trying to resist the change? That's no fun," said Bellwether angrily. A few more whooshes were heard, followed by yelps as Nick was hit again and again. "Come on! Give in!" Judy kept trying to help but Nick was already up on all fours, snarling at Judy. She fell back in surprise and backpedalled herself into a corner.

Nick slowly approached her, growling menacingly; she shut her eyes and awaited the inevitable which kind of thankfully came rather quickly. Judy felt teeth tear into her neck and she screamed as loudly as she could. The pain was unbearable and only got worse as the fox tightened his grip. She could feel her blood draining away and with it, her consciousness. Everything started going black and soon, she couldn't feel the pain anymore.

That was when she opened her eyes and sat up, panting heavily. She nervously patted her neck and upon discovering that it was completely fine, let out a deep sigh. Taking a look at her clock she discovered it was 2:36 AM and groaned. She lay awake for ages, tossing and turning as she tried to fall asleep, but to no avail. When she finally gave up it was already 4:00.

She got up and went to make some breakfast. There wasn't much lying around the kitchen and so, settled for some carrot juice and a little salad made up of some random vegetables she found lying about in her fridge. She sat down and shovelled down the meagre portion of food and drained her carrot juice in a single go.

After lazing about for a while she got ready and dressed in a clean uniform and soon found herself outside Jitters'. The little café usually opened its doors bright and early to catch any early risers like Judy and Nick, but she hadn't come this early before.

She opened the door which in turn rang a bell, alerting the owners. When she went in, the place was deserted, and the counter wasn't manned; they were probably just in the back, finishing off baking the pastries and bread that they would use for the day. They had probably heard the bell and would be through shortly.

The owners had become fond of Nick and Judy, as they showed up at least once a day and almost always left good tips. The owners, Danny and Eve Hunter, were quite fond of Nick, what with being foxes as well. However unlike Nick, their fur was a snowy white compared to his red fur.

They were brother and sister from a litter of five. They had both grown up in Tundratown but had moved into downtown Zootopia after school and opened the café which they'd run rather successfully for over a decade. The name had come from a rather embarrassing time in Danny's early childhood, namely when he had been given a cup of coffee instead of cocoa. Eve described the event as hilarious and the whole family had called him Jitter for days.

It wasn't very long before Danny Hunter came out to see who'd come in. He smiled the moment he saw Judy. "Hey there Miss Hopps! You're up early, wanting to surprise Nicky or something?"

Judy laughed nervously; she only wished that were the case. "Nono nothing like that. I'll just have my usual thanks, oh and some coffee. I had a bit of a rough night." Danny nodded and went off to get the requested foodstuffs while Judy took a seat. She took a deep breath and tapped her paws on the table, trying her best not to look sullen. She took a look at her watch and saw it was almost six. She was fairly sure Chief Bogo wouldn't mind if she clocked in a little late given the circumstances.

With trademark efficiency, Danny came over and deposited Judy's bagel, carrot juice and coffee in front of her. He also flicked on the TV in the corner and set it to the news as he usually did. What he usually didn't do was grab a coffee himself and sit next to the bunny, tilting his head. "What's up Judy?"

Judy who was quietly dumping a large amount of sugar into her coffee suddenly looked up. "What do you mean?"

Danny laughed quietly to himself. "If there are two things I know about you, it's that you never order coffee and you never come in here without Nicholas, ever."

Judy groaned and leaned back in her seat. Were all foxes this good at reading her? She turned to the TV and took in the weather report while trying to think of an answer. The TV was usually muted as to not disturb the patrons, but it was subtitled so they could still read.

"What happened? Did you two have a fight? Disagreement even?" he said still trying to make eye contact with the rabbit. "You can talk to me, we're all friends here. Did he do something wrong? What is it?" Judy, however, kept staring at the TV screen.

"Judy if you won't even look at me I'll…Hey, are you crying? " He kept his eye on her for a moment longer before turning to the TV. When he saw what was going on he scrambled for the remote and turned up the volume.

The screen held the image of unmistakable ZNN news anchor Peter Moosebridge, with a picture of the ZPD and the headline 'Missing Officers'. "-earlier this morning Chief Bogo of the ZPD held an emergency press conference. Let's go to a clip for more." The scene suddenly cut to a picture of Chief Bogo at a press conference that must have been held pretty early, not like the press cared. A good story was worth getting up early for.

"We have received no ransom details for the missing officers yet."

"Are there any leads?"

"We have a few leads which are being investigated as we speak."

"Is it just Police Officers being targeted?"

"The only individuals missing so far have been ZPD Officers."

"With so many missing can the ZPD still function?"

At that, Chief Bogo snorted loudly. "We have more than enough Officers for standard operations."

After that, the scene cut to a list of the missing Officers with full names and pictures. "A total of twelve Officers have been reported missing in action, including popular figure Nicholas P Wilde, the ZPD's first fox Officer who was pivotal in solving the Night Howler case of last year. The ZPD has issued a statement to all citizens that if you have seen any of these individuals lately, notify the ZPD immediately. That's all for now, we'll see you for the new-"

The last sentence was cut off by Danny switching off the TV and looking over to Judy who had begun crying into her coffee. He sat there for a moment before moving his chair around to Judy, wrapping his arm around her. "Shh shh, it's alright. I'm sorry."

Judy found the gesture comforting and managed to stop crying, instead turning and grabbing the fox, sobbing occasionally into his fur. Danny was a little surprised but gently patted her back. "I'm sure he's doing just fine. I know Nick; he's a tough little guy. Just like you right?" he said with a small laugh. "He'll be just fine, you wait and see. He'll come out of this laughing."

Judy found herself feeling a little better as she finally broke away. "Thank you."

Danny smiled. "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch. I won't finish that quote but you should get the gist. Now you sit right there, and I'll see if the carrot cake is done being iced. And don't worry about paying. Consider it our treat." With that, he got up and walked off to the back again.

Judy could hear a conversation going on in the back, followed by a short gasp and a loud smashing of crockery. There was then more arguing which Judy could hear was mainly coming from Eve which stopped when she herself came out holding a rather large slice of carrot cake, paired with some vanilla ice cream. "I'm terribly sorry to hear about Nick. I know he means a lot to you, and you him from what I see."

Judy smiled a little at that. She had always admired Eve's ability to know exactly what to say, not to say Danny didn't have his own talents of course. The vixen placed the plate in front of her so gently it barely made a sound, which was quite impressive considering the sheer size of the cake slice that sat upon it. "I'm sure he's doing just fine knowing you're okay. So keep smiling, for him. Okay?"

Judy laughed a little. It had been a while since she had last laughed, she had become so used to it around Nick, and it felt pretty good. She smiled and nodded, she was already beginning to feel much better. Eve grinned happily, "Good, now enjoy that cake," she said pointing at it before heading off.

Judy had almost forgotten how important friends were when she came to Zootopia. Having people like Danny and Eve to turn to felt, comforting in a way. She took a small bite of the cake and her smile only grew; as usual, it was unbelievably good, and being freshly baked meant it was still warm. To the surprise of many customers, it was Danny who baked most of the pastries and cakes; Judy made a mental note to buy more of them as thanks.

When Judy walked out of Jitters' she felt much happier and was determined to not let Nick's disappearance bring her down. Instead, now it only fuelled her desire to bring him back, as well as all the other Officers. She would work twice as quickly and twice as hard until this mystery was solved.

A train ride suddenly felt a little cushy and she set off at a lightning quick pace towards the ZPD. She clocked in just around seven o clock before greeting the ZPD's resident Cheetah. "Good morning Clawhauser! Did you sleep well?"

Clawhauser looked a little surprised but smiled at her. "Hey Judy, you seem pretty happy all things considered."

Judy nodded. "Yup, oh and I picked you up a couple donuts since your favourite was on the way," she said smiling as she hopped up and dropped a small box on the desk. They may have gotten a bit shaken up as she ran but she was pretty certain Clawhauser didn't mind.

"Oh thank you! You didn't have to go and do that!" he said beginning to share Judy's grin as he opened the box and tossed one of the pastries into his mouth, seemingly swallowing it whole. "Oh, Chief Bogo asked me to send you to his office when you got in."

Judy nodded and quickly hopped up the stairs to Bogo's office, knocking on the door quietly. There was a pause followed by a gruff "Come in." Judy complied and walked into the large office, smiling happily. "Ah, Hopps. Finally woken up I see."

Judy was about to retort when she realized where she'd been all morning. Chief Bogo sighed. "I assume you saw the news?" Judy nodded. "The press is always a double-edged sword," he said almost to himself. "On one side, it might make our unknown opponent back off a bit. On the other, it might encourage them, knowing they'll get more of a response; as if Officers didn't have enough trouble without two dozen reporters up their tails."

Judy laughed a little. "May I ask why I'm here Sir?"

Bogo looked up and nodded. "We've tried to get a response from Cliffside Asylum, but they haven't been cooperating. We haven't heard anything back. City Hall also seems to be in the dark. The whole situation seems kind of suspicious if you ask me."

"And you want me to…" Judy said, subtly hinting that he should get to the point.

"This morning we sent a request for a search warrant, however, the request is still being reviewed. As I don't believe we have time to wait for the bureaucrats, I'm putting together a small team for a scouting operation. And when I say small, I mean small," he said pointing at Judy. "I don't want this assignment leaked to the press or anyone for that matter. I feel sending half a dozen rhinos up there is bound to arouse a lot more suspicion."

Judy nodded. "I understand sir."

"Good. Now, since your induction and 'success'…We have a few other recruits of your calibre who should be well suited to the task. As the most senior member, you'll be in charge of them. Do you accept?"

Judy blinked at this. She'd been in charge of small assignments before but, nothing like this, and especially not with new recruits. She nodded regardless.

"Very good. Your team has already been briefed on the situation and importance of this mission. You'll leave in two hours. In the meantime familiarize yourself with these," he said while holding out quite a large folder. "That contains a map of the asylum, a modified rules of engagement dossier as well as any additional information you could possibly require."

Judy nodded and took the folder, rather surprised by the weight of it.

"I'll remind you, I don't want to see or hear this on the news. I also don't want to have to add four more names to the missing in action list."

Judy nodded. "You won't have to; I won't let you down, Sir."

Bogo sighed heavily as he leaned forward. "Don't make me regret this Hopps, dismissed."


	5. Act 1 Chapter 4

**Hi there! I just want to take a moment to say thanks for all the support! I never expected to get this much of a positive reception so quickly! This was just a small idea I had in class one time and I had no idea it would be this popular. I just got off for spring break so you can expect regular updates and longer chapters in the coming days. I hope you're enjoying this story as much as I am writing it and if you're feeling particularly pleased, feel free to write a small review! Seeing those little compliments just spurs me on to write bigger and better. Anyways, I'll stop talking and let you guys get on with the chapter. Enjoy!**

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Two hours pass in a flash when you have plenty to do. Judy had gone to meet her team and get them up to speed on the mission should any of them be a little less informed.

Judy had been grouped up with Officers Barker, Lloyd, and Wood. She was actually surprised, she hadn't seen these officers around too much, she only hoped that they knew how to handle themselves.

Barker was a foxhound, she was sure before now the only reason Bogo would have let such a small breed on the force would be his nose, but apparently this little guy had excelled in chases, whether on paw or behind a wheel.

Officer Lloyd was an otter who had apparently joined up around the same time Nick had, however, Judy didn't really recognize him. Lloyd was apparently a bit of a technical wiz and had excelled in the theoretical side of things while scraping passes in the physical ordeals. And lastly was the largest member of the group going by size.

Officer Wood was a white-tailed deer and one of the few female officers at the ZPD. She, according to her reports, had excelled in weapons training rather surprisingly; setting academy records for the longest sniper kill as well as target acquisition time. Such skills were not in constant use within the ZPD and she was recommended as a backup for a SWAT division to go on more 'high risk' operations, however, she insisted on staying on as a regular officer.

Judy had introduced herself to the three, not that she had to. The three of them were already well acquainted with her and her exploits. The three of them had gone over a plan, spending their precious minutes staring at a floor plan of the asylum and its grounds.

This was a daytime operation, and getting across the bridge was something Judy and the others didn't believe they could do. Swimming across didn't seem like the best plan either. Even Lloyd was sure he couldn't get across with the sheer force of the current. So Judy decided to go with Wood's plan, which was to bring binoculars, notepads and then find a vantage point. Judy remembered quite a few from her time there with Nick and marked out two points that gave a good view of the building. She split the team into two pairs; Wood and Lloyd were together which left her and Barker.

The mission dossier also mentioned that there would be radio silence on this assignment, as well as undercover disguises. If they were caught there could be nothing tying them to the ZPD; this was the reason why so many greenhorns were selected as they would be less widely known by the press. They were permitted to bring radios and scanners just in case this hunch was right on the money, but they were not allowed to use them except in short range situations with each other.

After getting all the necessary gear required, which wasn't much, the four of them changed into more casual clothing and hopped into one of the ZPD's undercover vehicles, a large black van and were already heading out.

Barker had volunteered to drive and since Judy had been down this road before, she was in the passenger seat giving directions. They quickly came upon the hidden maintenance tunnel 6B, which after a quick swipe with Judy's ID card let them pass through and down a road Judy hadn't followed in over a year.

"Pull over, off the road. In those trees," Judy ordered as they came up to their destination. The group split into their pairs and left for their designated positions. When Judy and Barker arrived at their little outcropping, Judy pulled out the binoculars while Barker grabbed a notepad and waited.

Pulling up the binoculars did confirm some things; one was that this place definitely wasn't deserted. "There's activity in the building, no guards outside from what I can tell by just looking."

Just then their radios activated. "This is team two…We're in position," came the voice of Officer Wood. "Be advised team one, we're against the sun here. Be sure to cup the ends of your binoculars, we don't want glint giving us away."

Judy quickly ducked down behind the safety of the rocks at that and looked at her binoculars. She could have already blown their cover for being so careless! Thankfully no one was outside; at least that's what she thought.

"Team one, I've spotted two wolves on the roof of the building, confirm."

Judy leaned back over the rock, making sure to cup the ends of the binoculars with her paws as she looked through. "Confirmed, team two…" Judy didn't recognize the two of them, but they were armed, which is what scared her. They didn't quite have the uniform that she'd seen on the wolves in the past, she'd have to keep looking.

Judy surveyed the whole facility with her binoculars, confirming sightings and having Barker jot down everything she said. It was just about eleven when things started to heat up. Judy thought she heard something a little odd. She couldn't hear much due to the roaring waterfall, but she heard something else over it. It sounded rather like…

"Team one; you see that helicopter too, right?"

She looked up and did indeed see a helicopter going around, with a large container attached to the winch of it. It slowed down in the courtyard, and with a loud clang dropped the container out in the open before moving up and landing on the roof. "Unmarked helicopter, shipping container… What's going on out here?" she mused aloud.

A couple wolves came out the front door and opened up the container, beginning to ferry unmarked crates into the building. These wolves also didn't share the black coat uniform she'd seen before. Could this just be a coincidence? She also wondered what they could be bringing in, but just then, the radio flickered to life. But, rather oddly, it was not a voice that came over the speaker, but a series of beeps. After a while, team two spoke. "Hey! Hey, that's Morse! Gimme that pad!"

At the revelation, the beeping suddenly stopped. "Team two what's going on?" asked Judy.

"T-That beeping! It was Morse code, and if it wasn't you guys it's someone in there on police frequencies!"

The cogs suddenly started turning in Judy's head. "They're trying to talk to us! Alright, if you can hear us in there, we're ready."

There was stunned silence from both teams for a while before the beeping slowly started coming through. Judy looked over at Barker who shrugged; at least someone else was as clueless as she was.

All she could do was sit and listen to the beeps.

Beepbeepbeepbeep beeepbeeepbeeep beepbeeepbeeep…

A good five minutes or so went by with the beeps before suddenly, they stopped. Judy could hear Officer Wood begging for more but no response came. The opportunity must have been lost. It was a while before the talking on the radio actually mentioned Judy.

"Hey, team one. We might want to call it here for the day. Your buddies in there talk fast and uh…Well, I still need to translate all this."

Judy nodded and agreed they should call it a day. Both teams backtracked to the van and started driving to back towards the ZPD. There was muttering in the back as Officer Wood worked out the various letters, which Judy couldn't help but eavesdrop on.

"…F…F…I…C…E…R. Officer, officer! Then it's uh, W…I…L-"

"Wilde," Judy finished.

"Huh?"

"Officer Wilde, Nick is still in there! Keep going!" Wood went back to her work meanwhile Judy's heart did a little flip in her chest. He was okay! Now they had the evidence that the missing officers were there! But why? Oh it didn't matter why, they kidnapped police officers and that was warrant enough.

"Nine left. Others taken away," Wood said rather worriedly. "What could that mean?"

"Keep going," Judy commanded quickly. "And do it aloud please."

Wood nodded and continued. "Long word here, uh… E…X…P…E…R…I…M," she paused for a minute and filled in the rest of the letters herself. "Experiments."

The level of unease in the van rose considerably. Everyone shuffled in their seats and rubbed their necks nervously or something similar. "G-Go from the beginning."

"This is Officer Wilde. There's nine of us left. The others were taken away for experiments." After her recap she continued, scribbling away rapidly at easier words before tackling the unknown ones. "C…O…N…T…A…I, that's container maybe, yeah, container. Then , uh, N…I…G…H…T, night." Suddenly she stopped reciting her words and finished her work. Judy could hear heavy breathing with a wobble to it... like someone was afraid. She turned around to see Officer Wood, staring at her notepad with wide eyes as she borderline hyperventilated.

That's when she took a deep breath and after scribbling in a few more letters recited the full transcript.

"This is Officer Wilde. There's nine of us left. The others were taken away for experiments. They're using _Night Howlers._ " There was a small gasp and the van swerved a little bit before getting back on track. "I repeat, _Night Howlers are back_."


	6. Act 1 Chapter 5

Judy and the crew shared a quiet ride back to the ZPD, during which Judy explicitly told them to keep quiet. Judy took all the information that was gathered and spent the rest of her afternoon writing up her report.

When she finally knocked on Chief Bogo's door, she was emotionally and physically exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go and get some rest. Chief Bogo bellowed his usual "Come in," and Judy came in. "Hopps, I didn't expect you back until tomorrow."

Judy nodded and walked in, depositing her completed report on Chief Bogo's table with a rather loud thump. "I felt you should probably see this as soon as possible, Sir."

Bogo raised an eyebrow at the rabbit but nonetheless pulled out his pair of reading glasses and opened up the report. As he read Judy simply thumped her foot gently on the floor, eager to leave. She probably could have just gone by now, but she felt he'd have questions. The first of which was, "Is there a reason you're sitting here watching me read this? Go home Hopps."

Judy sighed. "Flick to the end, page fourteen." There was a quiet flicking of pages followed by almost complete silence. Judy saw his eyes look up over the rims of his glasses at her once before they scanned the page once again.

"Are you absolutely sure this is what you heard?"

Judy paused at that. "Well, it was Morse code over one of our short-range frequencies. The translation is correct if that's what you're asking."

Bogo sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "None of this makes sense. Why the ZPD? Why didn't they just take regular citizens?" Judy had no response and as such stayed silent. "I was able to find some information down in records on these wolves that keep showing up," Bogo went on to say as he held up a folder, offering it to Judy.

She took it and blinked at the name on the cover. "Fang?"

"They're a private security company; well-funded, well-armed and well-trained. Apparently, it's a big family business," Bogo explained as Judy began to look through the folder. "They've caused us trouble in the past; they're not exactly the most ethical. They're loyal to who pays them; they don't care what's going on. I believe Lionheart actually hired them a year ago during the Night Howler case."

Judy remembered. While they were scary and most likely a force to be reckoned with, they were fooled by that fake howl last year. "If what you've put in this report is true, I think we need to get a team together and pull this night howler threat out by its roots, the problem is the hostages."

Bogo got up and started pacing slowly. "Right, I'm not quite done with your team. I'm going to call in everyone and we're going to get ready for a fight."

Judy blinked. "B-But the hostages! Sir I-"

"Your team will go in first, locate the hostages, secure them, exfiltrate," Bogo interrupted quickly. "Once the safety of the hostages is secured or at least assured, we'll commence our operation."

"But Sir don't we have to-"

"We leave in three hours. Go get yourself ready Hopps. This ends tonight."

Judy nodded and left the small office, leaving behind the file on Fang. She was a little concerned about everything but she was determined to see this thing through to the end. But after looking at the time, she realized she had one place to go first.

Danny and Eve were just cleaning up after their last customer had gone when Judy ran into the café at full speed. And now they were busy watching her demolish a portion of cake and juice that seemed larger than Judy herself. Eve was chuckling quietly to herself while Danny was wondering to himself if his baking was really that good.

After her late night snack Judy thanked the Hunters and jogged back to the ZPD just in time to see quite a large number of officers filing into the briefing room. Some looked surprised and others looked incredibly tired; but the others looked determined and ready to go.

Chief Bogo walked in and looked around the room, nodding. "I know it's late. But thanks to the efforts of Officer Hopps, we have a lead on the location of our missing comrades." At this a few of the other officers perked up and became much more interested, Judy even got a few pats on the shoulder and some compliments.

"Alright settle down you lot. Now, the target is Cliffside Asylum; due to its location, and surroundings, it can only be approached from the main bridge. The plan is to get a small hostage rescue squad into the building. They will locate and extract the hostages safely, while the rest of us take down anyone associated with them. Speed will be essential, strike quickly and we'll end it quickly too."

Everyone in the room nodded their heads and was getting hyped up for the operation. "One final thing I feel I need to mention to you all. Some of the hostages may not be safe, as we have heard reports of night howler experimentation at the scene. That is why I expect all of you to take extra precaution. I've requested to have a medical crew on standby and all of you will be issued night howler antidote just in case. Gear up, let's go get our friends back."

There was a cheer followed by a thundering of hooves and paws as everyone rushed out to get prepared. Judy followed suit and met up with her team. Very soon, there was a large convoy of police cruisers, armoured vehicles as well as ambulances moving through downtown Zootopia. Needless to say, the display turned a few heads and soon, the convoy crew with news vans and even the occasional curious civilian.

Upon reaching Cliffside Bogo turned into a machine, belting out orders left right and centre as barricades were set up, the press were kept back and the guard post at the near side of the bridge taken with little to no resistance. Two Fang mercs were busy chatting away in the back of a locked cruiser while Bogo bellowed demands through a loudspeaker, which the opposition didn't seem too eager to honour. Unfortunately for them, that meant one very angry ZPD riot force would be charging them down shortly.

Bogo ordered the Officers into formation on the bridge, which caused some commotion from within the building ahead. Fang mercs lined up at the end of the bridge, ready to fire. So when the formation started moving, they did. The sound was deafening to Judy. She had heard gunfire before but not like this. What Judy wasn't afraid of was getting hit however.

Bogo wasn't in his current position for no reason at all. He was as smart as he was strong, which meant the formation he had devised just meant they could walk right up to the front door. Riot gear had its perks, especially on larger mammals. Bogo and a few other officers at the front simply held up large ballistic shields which Judy could hear simply deflected the bullets off as they jogged across the bridge. The moment the firing stopped, however, was when those shields were dropped and everyone charged forward the last few meters. The small force was quickly overwhelmed and the mercenaries were cuffed and sent across the bridge.

Judy was in complete awe of Bogo. She hadn't seen this side of the police before and to be honest, she hoped she never had to again. But she was glad there were animals like Bogo to lead in times of jeopardy like this. "You're on Hopps, see if you can find them," commanded Bogo as he set to work on getting the doors open.

Judy and her team broke away and got to work with their radios, it wasn't that long before they got a response. "I never thought I'd be happy to hear gunfire, Carrots."

Judy laughed; even at times like this he could still crack jokes. "Nick! Where are you? Is everyone else okay?"

"We're doing fine yeah; they all left us alone when the fighting started. We're in those old cells; remember the ones you and I found?"

"Yeah I remember. We're coming to get you just sit tight."

"Carrots! Wait, the others who aren't with us. They got taken a couple floors up, might want to take a look around for them too. Just a thought."

Judy nodded to her team and as they got up there was a large crash as Bogo showed the bad guys what he thought of their barricade.

He had charged through the reinforced main door, shoulder first and had knocked it clean off its hinges. The rest of the officers ran in and soon, Judy was in as well. Judy could barely hear herself think over all the shouting and smashing and shooting but she had looked over the diagram of this building at least five times and knew exactly where to go. She ran ahead and the rest of her squad followed.

Left, right, straight on, third door on the left and…Mess up. Judy as she was running ran straight into a waiting Fang mercenary who grabbed her by the neck and held her up. "You two stay where you are! Don't move a muscle."

Despite everything, only one thing went through Judy's mind at that moment. "Two?"

A single shot rang out down the dark corridor and suddenly Judy fell to the ground as the wolf howled in pain. There were a further two shots and the wolf keeled over, writhing in pain. Judy looked down the hallway to see Officer Wood walking casually out of the dark holding onto a small handgun. She simply smiled before her expression hardened again. "Let's keep moving."

Judy nodded and kept moving towards Nick's supposed location, albeit at a much slower pace. Eventually, they arrived at the large cell block and were very happy to see all of the hostages locked in their cells. Of course, Judy ran to one in particular first. "Nick!"

Nick looked up from where he is lying on his bed and smiled. He looked a little worse for wear, his uniform was torn in places and stained but he looked relatively fine. "Hey Carrots, you made it!"

Judy looked at the keypad and groaned. "We don't, um, do you know if any of the guards have the code on them or-"

"94368. In fact it's that for all of them," Nick interrupted, grinning happily as he rocked back and forth on his feet.

Judy blinked. "How did you-"

"Trade secret, I'll tell you later. Now, chop chop!" said Nick pointing to the keypad.

Judy typed in the code and told the others to do the same for the other cells. Surprisingly it worked and soon all the officers were out and ready to go. Judy reported this to Bogo over the radio who told her to escort them all out while they cleared the upper levels. Judy looked at all the officers who were currently jogging down the corridor out of the building, leaving her and Nick.

They both shared a look and a quick hug. "It's good to see you Carrots."

Judy laughed a little as she pulled away. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Judy and Nick as well as the other officers jogged to the far end of the bridge where Judy sat down with Nick on one of the viewpoints she had used earlier. Nick had been given a once over by the medical team and was simply given a blanket and a cup of coffee on his request.

Judy had no idea where they had gotten said coffee but she was happy. She had found her best friend and he was happily sipping at his drink. "Heck of a couple of days right?" Nick had said casually.

Judy was impressed herself. The ZPD had worked incredibly quickly, but something was still bugging her. She pushed it to the back of head and smiled as she watched Chief Bogo shove a couple more wolves across the bridge.

Nick just chuckled to himself. "I'm just glad it's all over."

Judy then sighed. "I get the feeling it isn't over."

Nick looked over at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I know they're okay. I mean, they're right there," she said pointing at the bridge. She was, of course, referring to the other missing officers who were walking slowly behind Bogo. "But, this whole thing, night howlers and experiments…I have a feeling we didn't solve everything last year, and I have a feeling we still haven't solved it after this."

Judy sighed as she looked over to Nick. "What happened in there? What did you see?"

Nick looked down at his coffee, suddenly quiet. "Well, they didn't let us see much. We were lead in blindfolded and were kept in our cells. But I could hear things, smell them too." He rubbed his forehead as he tried to recall everything. "The flowers, I could smell them from the cell. I could smell them from the moment they took me out of the car when I got here. And then there was the screeching and roaring and shouting, y'know for an asylum they've got some pretty thin walls."

Judy let herself smile before motioning for him to continue. "You could hear them through the walls late at night. Talking, yelling, it was terrifying. I don't know what they're doing with those flowers but at least it's over now."

Judy only hoped that was the case. She wasn't on clean up duty so she opted to go home and get some rest while Nick was taken to the hospital for a full check-up. The following few days were spent dealing with the press and cleaning up at the asylum. Strangely though, there wasn't much to clear. There was no evidence that supported the testimonies of any of the officers.

Bogo had personally conducted a full sweep of the entire area and had not found a petal, let alone equipment and shipments of night howlers. There had been no one else found at the scene besides the Fang unit, which confused the ZPD even further. Kidnappings had never been their MO, and none of them were willing to spill anything about their employers.

The only hard evidence came in the form of the medical reports. Those that had been 'experimented' on had high concentrations of Hydroprobalin in their blood stream. Hydroprobalin was the synthesised cure for the effects of the night howler serum, which meant any idiot could figure out that to have such a large concentration of the drug in the blood was to counter the psychotropic effects of the night howler serum.

But with little else in solid evidence, the ZPD was forced into a state of heightened alert. While the officers licked their wounds, there was still a threat somewhere out there. It was ready and waiting to strike fear into the heart of the city. However, Judy and Nick were also ready. No mystery had ever stopped them before, and they weren't about to let that reputation fall.

* * *

 **And so ends part one of my story! I'm going to be taking a little break, just a couple of days to let my creative juices flow so to speak. I've been writing this every second of spare time I've had for the past week and I'm quite happy with how it's come out! But once again, thank you all for your support! Stay tuned for part 2 of Blazing Darkness, Despair. Despair will challenge Nick and Judy's detective skills to the absolute limit and test their friendship and trust in each other as they attempt to take down the remnants of Bellwethers gang of terrorists. Look out for it next week!**


	7. Act 2 Chapter 1

Judy could barely hear what Nick was saying over the loud music but she didn't quite care. She was having a fun time, which she supposed was the intention of tonight anyways. Ever since the all clear, Chief Bogo decided everyone needed a little time off. And so, everyone had gotten a little vacation time; in rotation of course to make sure the ZPD could still perform its duties.

When Nick and Judy got their extra day off, Nick had suggested they hit Sahara Square and spin some slots for a while since they didn't get to go before. Judy kind of wanted to keep things quiet but Nick seemed determined to drag her out so she decided to accept.

The duo had gotten a little more dressed up and at dusk headed out towards the Dawn's Call Casino, where they had sat for a few hours. They ate, played and drank; laughing their evening away at each other's jokes. Judy was actually a little lucky and came away with a few extra twenties in her pocket whereas Nick seemed to be able to play a game for an hour and come away with almost exactly the same amount of cash he went in with.

It was getting late and both Judy and Nick were getting a little tired of gambling and it was then Judy's brilliant idea to find a nightclub, much to her own surprise; perhaps the drinks were getting to her.

They walked out into the beautiful, night time Sahara Square together and both looked up at the Palm Hotel. Judy had never seen it lit up like this, which still showed how inexperienced she was with the city. She had moved here over a year ago and still hadn't seen Sahara Square at night. It was absolutely beautiful, and she found herself staring at the huge structure for a long time while Nick watched.

"Enjoying the view?" he asked casually before following her gaze to the huge palm tree shaped building. "Personally I just don't see that as very energy efficient."

Judy giggled and somehow couldn't stop herself and broke down into an absolute fit of laughter. Nick himself found himself chuckling at the bunny. "I never thought my jokes were that good. Come on, let's gooooo…There."

Nick had pointed at one of his favourite places to run off to at night, The Pride. The nightclub was owned by a family of lions, hence the name, who were good friends of Nick's apparently. Nick said it was a long story but the friendship had earned them a good spot and some free drinks which Judy wasn't about to protest about.

And so here they were, enjoying the drinks, talking, moving gently to the music…Judy could practically feel the stress fading away.

"Did you hear what I said?"

Judy blinked as she turned to Nick and focused. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I didn't."

Nick smirked as he sipped at his drink. "I thought those big ears of yours were good for hearing. Anyways, I was wondering if you felt like dancing."

Judy looked over and blinked. "Dancing? You?" She couldn't help but stifle a giggle.

Nick rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. But hey, it's a club. Might as well get into the spirit of things," he said looking out over the mass of writhing bodies that was the dance floor.

Judy looked at her drink and smiled before draining it and hopping out of her chair rather unsteadily, grabbing Nick by the arm and dragging him out of his seat. "Let's go then!"

Nick almost spilled his drink all over himself but managed to put down the glass as he was dragged from his seat and out onto the dance floor. The music became deafening as they got closer and Nick laughed as he was finally able to stand properly. Nick had never been big on dancing; he was more the type of fox to sit on the sidelines and tap his paws to the beat. But he didn't mind dancing, and was more than happy to cater to Judy and move about a little.

Judy, as a rabbit, had a tendency to dance with a spring in her step. She would bounce up and down with the beat, moving her arms happily. Nick on the other hand was much more casual and was happy to simply move his arms around and take some steps in time with the thumping music. He looked around happily and noted that the crowd was a little rowdier than it usually was, definitely a lot more animals. He smirked at one couple who looked closer to intercourse than dancing out on the floor before turning back to Judy.

He looked at his watch and smiled, seeing that he still had plenty of time he happily watched Judy dance. After a good half an hour or so, both of them returned to their seats, sweating and panting heavily. "That was a…a good way to kill some time!" Judy remarked with a laugh.

Nick nodded before asking a passing waitress for some more drinks. They sat there, drinking their ice water and Judy noticed that Nick kept checking his watch nearly every minute. "Expecting someone Nick?"

Nick simply smiled. "Not quite, come on. If we head now we'll get there in good enough time." Now it was Nick's turn to start pulling at Judy. She raised an eyebrow before shrugging and following behind him with a curious expression etched on her face.

Nick led her to the Palm Hotel and they stepped into the elevator, taking it up to the very top floor. Then they went right up to the roof, which Judy thought would be locked but Nick opened the door and held it open for her. "After you, Carrots."

Judy headed out and blinked as she ran to the edge and looked down. The view was incredible, she could probably see every section of the city from here. "You brought me up for a nice view?"

Nick smirked smugly as he looked at his watch. "No, I brought you here, for these," he said gesturing behind him.

Judy looked where he was pointing, and blinked. "What am I looking at?"

Nick laughed nervously, "Any second."

There was a brief pause before suddenly; Judy heard a loud whine followed by an explosion and a burst of colour. Her jaw dropped open and Nick finally stopped posing and took a deep breath as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Judy had never seen a fireworks display before, and as fireworks displays go, Sahara Square was notorious for producing the best. Bright flashes of red and blue, green and yellow and every colour in between lit up the sky.

Nick simply smiled as he watched her face. The Sahara Square fireworks display only came about every month or so, and he knew for a fact Judy hadn't seen it before. He had pulled a few strings to get up here but it was well worth it for her reaction. He also hadn't seen the display in quite a while and getting up here was a treat for him as much as it was Judy.

The next ten minutes were spent simply staring at the sky until the fireworks finally stopped. Nick started clapping his paws quietly as the display ended. "Impressive this time around, they added those-whoa!"

Judy interrupted him by tackle hugging him, laughing happily. He suspected this was the alcohol working a little but he hugged her back, holding her up against his chest. It was a solid minute before Judy's grip finally loosened and Nick in return let her slip back onto her feet. There was the largest grin on her face as she blushed slightly. "Enjoy that then?" Nick asked smirking.

"I uh, I've never seen fireworks like that before. I don't think I'll ever be able to forget them," Judy replied smiling. "Do you know why?"

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Because it was very good?"

"Because I watched them with you, you big dumb fox!" she said with a grin.

Nick returned the grin before he looked at his watch and sighed. "We should probably call it a night, we've got a long day tomorrow and it's already midnight. Come on, let's get moving," he said gesturing to the door.

Judy looked a little surprised but shrugged as she followed him back down through the hotel. She couldn't keep a smile off her face for the whole journey home and was even grinning as she tried to sleep. As far as she knew, she grinned all night and woke up with a huge smile on her face.

Nick on the other paw woke up with a groan and a bit of a headache. He shrugged on his usual work attire and got himself ready for the day, while reminiscing about the previous evening. It had taken quite a bit of work to get everything set up. Convincing Chief Bogo to move their day off took more than a lot of work but he did it, and getting onto the roof of the Palm Hotel took more than a few old favours and requests but it was well worth it. He was happy to see Judy happy, he only wished that he had had the common sense to record it.

Judy had been such an amazing improvement to his life in so many ways. He had her to thank for a lot of his current luxuries, namely his current apartment. With some honest cash in his pocket he had grabbed a bigger place and had slowly been furnishing it with bricka brack over the months. He quietly chuckled to himself as he looked at the numerous framed pictures that adorned his walls. He felt like an old fox with all this sentimental stuff around. He made a mental note to take down all the pictures if Judy ever visited.

He met up with Judy at Jitters' where they shared their breakfast. When Nick came in the day after his return to the ZPD, Danny and Eve had him occupied for at least an hour as he regaled them with tales of his 'adventure'. But for now he was content watching Judy eat her carrot cake which had become a regular addition to their breakfast order. Nick only dreaded the day when Judy realized that regular consumption of cake had quite a significant effect on one's waist. But for now she was still perfectly happy to munch away at junk and carbs every morning, moving to the city must have affected her in more ways than one.

Nick found himself staring at the news as he sipped at his coffee. There wasn't anything too interesting happening lately, which was both good news he supposed. Things had been a little quiet since the asylum raid, and Judy was beginning to think maybe she had been overreacting when she said she thought it wasn't over.

Judy was always vigilant and hardworking, and despite a lull in criminal activity was still working as hard as she could. Nick had a very different mindset, however, and saw the lack of crime as a bit of a break. He only hoped that the lack of work didn't affect his salary.

Nick once again smiled at the complete unlikelihood of their friendship. They were, after all, polar opposites in almost everything. Judy liked noise, Nick liked the quiet. Judy enjoyed company, while Nick was content to keep to himself. And even their species, fox and rabbit, predator and prey, natural enemies. He chuckled quietly at the disparity; Zootopia truly was an incredible place to bring two opposites like him and Judy together.

Judy noted the chuckle and looked up. "What's funny?"

Nick simply held up a paw before going to get another coffee from Danny, a much larger one. When he sat back down with his huge cup he asked a question. "Do you remember when you first met me?"

This made Judy pause and blink for a minute. "Of course I do. Why?"

Nick stared down at his coffee as he replied. "You helped me out. Why'd you do that? Cute rabbit like you straight out of Bunnyburrow, and you help out a fox. Don't get me wrong I appreciated the help, but why?"

Judy thought for a second but she already knew her answer really. "Well, you were getting picked on. Not to mention that whole 'dad' routine moved me a little," she said with a giggle. "How if Finnick by the way?"

Nick waved a paw. "Yeah, he's fine, but that isn't a good enough answer." Judy blinked as Nick continued. "Why, precisely? You had your fox repellent, a room full of prey animals, and an advantage so to speak. You could have just walked out, it's not like it was your business." Nick then looked up from his drink, straight at her. "Yet you decided to threaten an elephant and help me out."

Judy didn't quite know the answer herself. She had always thrown the occasion to the back of her mind, passing it off as a simple good deed. But he had a point. She was of no obligation to help him, she didn't even know him! It was then that her radio started going a little crazy, but she turned it down and ignored it as nothing she heard related to her or Nick. Eventually she found herself making up a reply. "Well, it's just because…When I got on the train to Zootopia, my parents gave me a present. They gave me fox repellent, fox away and even a fox taser," she said with a giggle. "I only took the repellent to get them off my back, but the whole situation made me think. Even with all we've accomplished together, that barrier between species like us still existed. And I didn't like it at all; I thought we were better than that."

Nick blinked and sipped at his drink as she talked. "I had a uh…A bad experience with a fox when I was young. His name was Gideon, he was picking on some other animals, and with me being like I was, I tried to stop him. Of course I couldn't win in a fight, but I managed to steal back what he had taken from his victims. I'll admit, the first time I saw you, I instinctively thought you were up to no good. You just had this shifty look about you."

Nick frowned a little but Judy kept talking. "But when I saw you and Finnick, I felt really bad. I felt so guilty for judging you like that before even talking to you. So if you want a real answer, I suppose it was just my guilty conscience."

The simplicity of the answer made Nick pause, but Judy wasn't done. "Even if I was right later on, about you being shifty, I still felt bad. After all, look at you now!" she said gesturing to the fox with a smile. "First fox police officer, friends with a cute bunny from Bunnyburrow."

Nick smirked. "Kind of funny how well blackmail brings people closer together." He paused for a second before sighing and asking Judy another question. "Do you remember when you called me? While I was at the academy?"

Judy tilted her head. "I called you lots of times. Which one?"

"You know which one."

Judy blushed and laughed nervously. "I uh, don't remember it 'too' well. Just what you told me about it."

Nick was of course referring to the night where Judy had had a few too many drinks and decided to call him at 2AM. Luckily, Nick was awake and answered his phone before too many cadets woke up. Judy had babbled on for a good few minutes, but some of what she said still grated on his mind. He had always been looking for a good chance to bring it up again, and he felt this wasn't the right time. "Never mind then. You should get back to that cake."

Judy smirked at that and went back to her food as Nick contemplated her answer, mulling over a lot of things in his head. It was during this lull in conversation that someone shouted over the quiet. "Hey, Danny! Turn up the tv! Something's going on!"

Everyone in the little café turned to the small television as the volume was turned up. "-terrupting our regularly scheduled program to bring you live coverage of a shocking event. Earlier this morning, the ZPD's SWAT division, responded to a terrorist attack in downtown Zootopia. The members of this crime ring, attacked the Zootopia University and have currently taken up a defensive position inside the building. These individuals are suspected of researching and manufacturing weaponized night howler serum and are believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of the ZPD officers last week. According to reports, the suspects are armed with both firearms and biological weaponry; many casualties can be confirmed due to the release of an unknown biochemical weapon in the form of a gas, which you can see behind me."

Judy and Nick followed as the camera panned to a scene of the once gleaming university. From the location you couldn't see much, but the entire area was covered in a thick purple haze. Gunshots could be heard every so often before eventually the scene cut back to the reporter.

"The mayor has declared a state of emergency. Many are being evacuated from the downtown area around the university, and medical crews are on standby to treat any wounded and or survivors that are found in the haze. We here at the ZNN will bring you all the details as they unfold, so stay tuned for more."


	8. Act 2 Chapter 2

Judy and Nick found themselves rushing out of the café at top speed to the surprise of the patrons and rushing down to the university. The Zootopia University was a gleaming jewel in the crown of the city. It produced some of the greatest minds out there, and while it had not taught Nick and Judy, it still represented a huge part of the city. This was not simply an attack on the city; it was an attack on the city's future. While grizzly to think about it was probably very true that many poor young students had been cut down in their prime while simply learning about their passions. Not to mention the lecturers and researchers employed by the university would be in danger as well. Some of them were the greatest minds of their generation; the university had actually played a pivotal role in manufacture of the Hydroprobalin serum as well.

Judy held back a few tears just thinking about it while Nick's gaze simply hardened. A full education was something life had not given to him. But he was still brilliant in his own way, and the police academy had given him so many friends and so much hope. To think an attack on this scale was not only possible but largely 'successful' made him sick to the core. Soon they arrived at the police blockade where a sea of reporters and civilians stood in fear and curiosity while some officers maintained the line. What amazed Nick is how many simply stood recording the event. A tragedy happens just as it always will and it goes down through a videophone.

Using their small physique Nick and Judy darted through the crowd and after showing their badges and IDs were soon on the other side of the barrier. From here they could see the university much better than they could from the television back in the café. The cloud they mistook for purple was actually more of a blue colour, and there were police vehicles as far as the eye could see. Chief Bogo must have called in everyone. Of course usually precinct one handled everything they could in terms of day to day crime, but for situations like this, Zootopia had its own specially trained divisions to handle the more serious matters. SWAT, hostage rescue, even PMCs were called in should the need arise.

Just from walking around Judy nearly burst into tears. Alongside the police vehicles there were also ambulances, many had patients and were on full alert. There was shouting and gunfire and chaos. Judy felt an odd mix of elation alongside the terror of the situation. She had never been in a situation like this, she was a country bunny. Nick might have seen something like this in his time but this was completely new to her.

Nick had seen his share of crime living in the city as well as the streets. He had seen bank robberies and large scale heists before, but nothing like this. Everything he had seen had the same motive, money. Money could get you out of a lot of things. Money could raise your standard of life. Money was always a good motive for crime. But this, their motive was fear. Fear and terror could be the only benefit from such a vicious attack, and it made him think back to a certain sheep a year ago. An individual named Dawn Bellwether, who did what she did on the beliefs that 'fear always works'. Perhaps this was a similar situation? Bellwether is in prison along with her three goons that she had working with her. But such a smart individual couldn't pull off everything with only three individuals, could they?

No, they couldn't. Nick believed he knew who was behind this attack, who was behind his capture and who was behind this plot to terrorize the city. But he had to be sure, and that's why he rushed ahead of Judy to find someone who might give him some answers. Eventually he found Chief Bogo, standing near one of the blockades barking out orders. Judy was still wandering about somewhere so he walked up by himself. When Bogo saw Nick he sighed.

"I had a feeling I'd see you sooner or later. Look Wilde, this isn't your department. Go home. We'll probably need you and Hopps AFTER this is over."

"Sir I was just wondering if you could tell me anything about the suspects," he said with a smirk, his hands behinds his back.

Bogo rubbed his muzzle in frustration and sighed. "Fine, if it gets you off my back. We counted at least twelve at first; that number has gone down to about seven or six thanks to our intervention. What we can confirm is that they're all prey animals, and they're heavily armed. Satisfied?"

"What's with the blue stuff?"

Bogo frowned. "That's where things get complicated. Due to what we've seen and had to deal with, it's night howler serum."

Nick blinked. "But, it's not a serum."

"Very astute observation Wilde, we should promote you." Nick simply laughed a little; he didn't know Bogo had it in him to crack a joke. "We're still waiting on a report to tell us the exact composition, but we've had to call for extra night howler antidote. We've treated quite a number of students and even some first responders who have 'gone savage'."

"And that's why this perimeter is so far back?"

Bogo raised an eyebrow. "Yes, that's why. We don't know how much they have or how well it travels on the wind, so we've doubled the standard perimeter size. We're still waiting on the MOPP gear to mount an offensive into the structure. Normally sharpshooters would make light work of this but they can't see anything through the gas. Now can you please just let me work here?"

Nick nodded and thanked Bogo before walking off to find Judy. He found her sitting down on a bench near the outskirts, simply staring at the sidewalk. "Hey, what's up Carrots?"

She looked up at Nick her eyes red, clearly from crying. "It's just, all this; so much suffering and for what?"

Nick sighed and made a move to sit down, but stopped when he heard, "Watch it! One got by!"

There was a sudden burst of movement in the officers as they rushed forward at what Nick could see was a wolf. He was down on all fours, snarling at the officers as they blocked his path. Nick heard the familiar sound of an air powered tranquilizer rifle followed by a growl as the wolf darted past the large officers, its eyes settling on Nick and Judy. It slowly moved in on them, ignoring the tranquiliser darts embedding themselves in its side before jumping at the duo. Judy seemed paralysed in fear, however Nick was less so. He threw Judy out of the way at cost to himself. The wolf knocked him down with a paw as it passed and quickly moved in to finish the job before it suddenly succumbed to the tranquiliser and slumped over, it was dragged away in short order.

Nick lay on the floor panting as he tried to compose himself. "Nick! Are you okay?" Judy cried out as she ran over to look him over along with a few other officers and a doctor. "You're bleeding!"

Nick looked at his arm and saw blood seeping through his shirt. One of the doctors on scene quickly moved Judy aside and rolled up his sleeve. "It's not deep, just a scratch is all. Come, let's get it dressed."

Nick nodded and got upright. His arm stung a little, nothing to cry over though. What did sting however is when the doctor decided to apply the disinfectant to the wound. "Ggaah! What is that, fire?!"

"Oh quit whinging and hold still." The doctor quickly checked the wounds again before applying some gauze and was soon bandaging the fox's arm. Judy watched in a guilty silence, knowing that her slow reaction caused the injury in the first place. She didn't like it here, not one bit. But she didn't feel like she could just leave everything behind.

She looked at Nick however and thought again. This wasn't just your average crime scene, there was a full on shootout here! It was dangerous, what if she got hurt or even killed? What if Nick got killed? What would she do? Maybe it was better if she just let the professionals do their job, right?

When Nick walked out of the ambulance he swung his bandaged arm around a little. "I'm convinced that they put acid in disinfectants. Anyways, I know you'd like to help out here Carrots, but-"

"Let's go home."

Nick blinked. He was a little surprised but nodded all the same. "Alright, well keep one eye on the news, and we'll meet up if they call?" he said beginning to walk backwards, pointing his fingers at her.

Judy blinked and blushed a little as she thought about it. "I actually don't have a TV at my place. Do you mind if I come with you?"

Nick looked a little surprised but nodded all the same. "Sure, just as long as you don't mind clutter."

Judy smiled and shook her head. "Let's get going then."

The trip over to Nick's place was pretty uneventful. They just chatted as they usually did about random happenings until they arrived at which point Nick ran inside for a moment, insisting that she stay outside for a minute. She did so curiously before Nick let her come in and she looked around. "Your place is much bigger than mine!"

"Well, I like the space. Besides, it came pretty cheap and I thought why not?"

"Did you ever consider why a place this nice might be quite cheap?"

Nick shrugged. "Stupid owners I suppose. I don't see much wrong with the place."

Judy had to admit it was quite a large improvement over her own apartment, which wasn't a big surprise. For a start it had more than one room. It had significantly more furnishings than her place and she wondered what it would take for Nick to let her live here as well on the couch or something.

"You've been holding out on me Nick! I didn't know you were so well off."

Nick smiled. "I wouldn't use the term 'well off', but two hundred dollars a day tax free did have its perks," he said with a smug grin before falling onto the couch back first. "Least I don't have to hide my cash anymore."

"So you own this place?"

Nick nodded. "Yup, my own little home," he said looking around. "She's a little temperamental, little cold in winter. But she's all mine," he mused quietly as he draped an arm over his eyes.

As she looked around she understood what he meant by clutter. There were clothes strewn about, empty mugs and blankets tossed about. "The rent on my apartment is surprising considering closet might be a better word for it."

Nick shrugged from his spot on the couch. "Hey can you pass me that blanket over there?" he said pointing over the back of the couch. He pointed at a lamp but Judy shrugged and found a blanket, picking it up, walking around and draping it over the fox. Nick raised his arm away from his eyes to look at her with a smug look on his face. "Thanks."

"Mind scooting over a bit?" she asked casually as she grabbed what she assumed was the TV remote. He did so and crossed his legs, giving her some room to sit down as he napped. It took her a while before she got the TV to the right station, but soon she was watching the news and things seemed to be looking up. Apparently there was now a team preparing to enter the building and gunfire had ceased almost completely.

She flicked through channels for a while, before hearing something else. Nick was snoring, rather loudly actually, and a quick peak under his arm told her that he was indeed fast asleep. She thought about just carrying on, but she was feeling a little mischievous. It was a big house, maybe she'd find something a little interesting.

She got up and started looking around. The living room didn't hold much of interest, although she could say she didn't share the fox's… interesting taste in music. The kitchen was nearly barren, however she did make a note of some chocolate ice cream in the freezer should she feel peckish. Then there was his bathroom, nothing of real note. He obviously had some preferred brands, Judy made a mental note; toiletries usually made good gifts.

She learned quite a lot about Nick she didn't know before. She looked in a closet however and blinked at something. There were a bunch of framed pictures in here, not even covered up or dusty for that matter; like they had just been put in here. She had expected them to be family portraits and granted some of them were. But a lot of them had her in them. There were pictures of the graduation and the badging ceremony, pictures of them out to dinner with friends and some that were just simple pictures. She looked through them and recalled when they were all taken.

Judy smiled and laughed a little. She had no idea he was this sentimental. They were obviously hidden from her so she decided to be extra careful when putting them back before closing the door to the closet quietly. There was one room she hadn't checked and with good reason, Nick's bedroom. She fought with herself for a while about going THAT far in sneaking around, but she figured if she'd gone this far, why not see the whole thing through?

She pushed open the door quietly and was rather surprised. It looked like the room was never used. Unlike the other rooms, which had varying degrees of messiness, the bedroom was clean and made up. The bed was large and had what looked to be some very nice red sheets neatly lain atop it. The closet was in the corner, built into the wall a little, which contained a wide arrangement of outfits, some of which Judy hadn't even seen him wear before.

There was a bookcase in the corner, which contained many popular titles, among other names Judy didn't recognise. Next to said bookcase sat a guitar in a stand which Judy tilted her head at. She didn't know he could play, he had never mentioned it before. She then noticed a large desk in the corner of the room, which had a laptop sat upon it as well as some other office supplies. Judy's curiosity took the better of her and she sat down on the stool in front of the desk. She opened a couple drawers and found a small stockpile of snacks, some legal looking documents and in the lowest drawer she found a small photo album.

She tilted her head and picked up the album, unwinding the piece of string that held it shut. As she opened it up she found old pictures of Nick and another fox she didn't recognise, a sister maybe or something like that. She tried to think back to the portraits but couldn't recall the vixens face. She flicked through the album and quickly started assuming that this vixen was an old lover, however she didn't have too much proof of that. There were just pictures of them playing, holding paws, hugging, for all she knew it could be a sister, one that Nick was very fond of. She then turned the page and immediately slammed the book closed as a blush worked its way onto her cheeks. Well, whoever this vixen was, she was definitely not Nick's sister.

She rebound the book and put it away as she tried to remove the more risqué images from her mind. She had thought about having a look at his laptop but after seeing, well, THAT…she thought she'd just head back and-

"Having a fun little snoop around?" came the casual yet cocky voice she knew and loved.

Judy turned in her seat and looked around at Nick who was leaning against the doorway. "Ahah! Nick! I uh, I was just, I…I um-"

"Her name was River."

Judy blinked. "Huh? Who?"

Nick smirked. "I only keep one book in that desk. And it's the only one that someone might slam shut."

Judy blushed again as the images came back to her mind and she looked down. "I-I'm sorry Nick, I didn't mean to-"

"Just leave it. We're all curious by nature. Can't turn back time now can I?" he said with a smile. "She was an old childhood friend of mine that turned out to be a little more than just that. About, oh, what would it be...eleven years? Early twenties for me that's all I can say."

"Y-You don't have to-"

"She was nice to me. Didn't know too much about what I did for a career back then, although she did get kind of annoyed at the hours it took up," he said with a nervous laugh. "Then one day she just left, disappeared without a trace. Skipped town maybe, I don't know. All I got was a note, which judging by that blush and the slam you didn't get to."

Judy suddenly felt compelled to go get the album again and flick to the back but she felt now was not the time. "Do you miss her?" Why did she ask that?

Nick shrugged. "It's been a long time. I've had time to lick my wounds and forget."

Judy nodded carefully and decided to drop it. "Did you love her?" Why was she doing that? She didn't think about that. It had just come out almost instinctually.

Nick looked up and laughed. Judy could tell he wasn't completely happy, she could hear the hurt in his voice. "Y'know I'm not too sure myself. It's been such a long time I've forgotten what I felt back then. You know how it is."

Actually, Judy didn't really know, but she decided not to show it. "Anyways, want to go watch something?" he asked pointing over his shoulder. "Try and forget about everything else?"

Judy liked the idea and nodded, quickly hopping off the chair and following him back into the living room. The movie didn't interest her too much and she soon found herself falling asleep wrapped in the blankets. The last thing she remembered was something about tridents and souls before she finally lost consciousness.

Nick didn't notice until the sleeping bunny decided to move and use him as a headrest. He smiled and turned down the TV, before leaning back and shutting his eyes himself. He thought about River for a while before his mind wandered back to Judy. He soon fell into a deep sleep himself and for a little while, there was peace and quiet.

* * *

 **Just a quiet little slice of life filler chapter I thought up. Now, people have come to me about spoilers, and personally I see that as stupid. If you're going to read a story based on a movie, you can expect spoilers a plenty. I'm not going to slap a big SPOILER tag on my story because if you're going to read a Zootopia story without seeing the movie or at the least have some knowledge of it, and then have the audacity to get upset about it and send an angry message to me, then frankly, you're an idiot.**

 **Y'see the thing I love about a new franchise, is that it isn't well developed. And it gives us, writers, the opportunity to expand the universe and make assumptions. For example, in my Zootopia, I don't see a need for a military. There aren't nations or possibilities for war. However, with technology on par with our world, I still see plenty of opportunity for civil war, terrorism and unrest. This is where SWAT divisions come in in our world, so why not Zootopia? I see no need to write up a military, but a strong police force and security companies seem plausible.**

 **There's also the backstory of our characters, which I decided to explore a little in this chapter. Our deuteragonist Nick doesn't have much backstory, all we know is he has a mother and a scarring childhood memory. That's a GOLD MINE of a story for budding writers to expand and improve upon.**

 **Anyway, for those of you who aren't going to cry about spoilers down my personal message feed, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing this one. Slice of life stories are usually my speciality, as in, I write them the most. .**

 **Thanks again for your support. I appreciate the positive feedback immensely. You all have a good day now!**


	9. Act 2 Chapter 3

**So, I uploaded this chapter earlier today and as I was doing so, I realized I had made a few mistakes. I thought about leaving it as is but figured you lot didn't really deserve that. So I took this chapter, polished it up a little and am reuploading it now. Sorry about any false alarms that got sent out. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

It was already dark out when Nick woke up again, and as such most of the room was dark as well. He moved to get up but as he moved, he realised that he wasn't alone as he usually was. Judy was still fast asleep atop his chest; face down in his fur, her arms hugging him gently as she slept. As cute as he found the whole thing, he decided it'd be best to wake her, but not before he took a quick picture.

With his phone he quickly snapped a picture of the sleeping bunny and put away the phone before gently shaking her. "Hey Carrots, come on, wake up."

Judy awoke groggily and as her head lifted up off Nick's chest, she blinked in surprise at the fox's smug face looking down at her. As the reality of the current situation took her, she squeaked quietly and jumped off of Nick with surprising speed. The sudden force on his chest made him feel like he had just been punched in the gut, and it made him curl up in pain and surprise.

Judy upon realizing her mistake immediately began to apologize. "N-Nick! I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright Carrots. Just, try not to do it again," Nick interrupted, forcing himself to cough and clear his throat. "Check the news will you? It's probably over, but just to be sure."

Judy nodded and flicked on the TV, switching the channel over to the news quickly to listen to anything of interest. There was nothing, and probably wouldn't be until tomorrow. They had missed the news report at six, and there probably wouldn't be anything major unless there was serious breaking news. Judy didn't quite feel like listening about stock markets and so turned off the television before looking at her phone. "It's quarter past seven. Just shows how much sleep we've been getting lately, we slept the whole afternoon away."

Nick chuckled quietly. "Well, it's always good to get a few extra hours." Judy flicked on her radio as Nick was talking and just casually started listening to it in the background as Nick continued. "I don't know about you but I'm pretty famished. Do you want to head out? Or should I try and scrounge something together here?"

Judy considered the options and sighed. Going out wasn't very appealing considering she had just spent the last six or so hours asleep on a couch. But she had seen Nick's kitchen and had seen what was available. Then she had another idea. "Why don't we get something delivered?"

Nick smiled and tossed away his blanket as he got up and made for the phone. "Good call Carrots. Pizza sound fine?" he asked as he shrugged off the shirt of his police uniform and tossed it to the side before picking up another shirt of the floor and sniffing it a few times before frowning and heading off down the hall.

Judy was a little distracted; she had a lot on her mind and found herself wondering what he had just said. She simply got up and followed him down the hall to the bedroom where he was currently shrugging on a clean blue dress shirt, before looking at ties.

She felt a little odd, watching him dress like this but it's not like she had seen much. Eventually, Nick settled on a smaller grey tie with a fancy pattern of colours on it before he turned and blinked and Judy. "How long have you been standing there?"

Judy shook her head to clear the cobwebs before responding very intelligently. "Huh? What?"

Nick frowned and tilted his head. "I said… y'know what never mind. Right, pizza then?"

Judy smiled and nodded. "Sure, just get whatever. I'm not too fussed."

Nick nodded off and headed out past her to go make the order, leaving her in the room by herself. She went over to his closet and had a closer look at his outfits. He really was a fan of the 'classy yet casual' sort of style, what with all these neatly pressed shirts and ties. She saw a couple of t-shirts and sweaters but she assumed those were for the colder months. As far as she knew Nick only really wore one layer.

But like she had noted before, she didn't even recognise some of these shirts. He didn't have too many after all, yet he opted to reuse worn ones and wash them rather than use these ones. She chalked it up to some sort of sentimental value before closing the closet and making for the door. Her eyes wandered to the photo album drawer again, but she shook her head and walked out. She wasn't about to try that again so soon.

She found Nick chatting away into the phone but didn't really hear much of interest. It sounded like he was still talking to the pizza place; must have been one chatty employee if he was still ordering.

She flicked on the news and sighed as she attempted to listen to three conversations at once, the news, Nick's call, and her radio. Luckily there wasn't much happening at the ZPD apparently, her radio was nigh silent. She didn't hear any distress calls or odd reports, just the regular chatter between dispatch and other officers. The news still wasn't interesting either, and so her ears swivelled around to Nick who was pacing back and forth in the hall, still chatting away on his phone.

"Yeah I know, it's been a long day… Seriously? That's rough, and you're still there? You should go home. Well, you should but then who gets the honour of delivering my food?" There was a quiet laugh and a pause. "Yeah just that, ramp up the size a little, yeah just a few inches. Not my fault I'm a little extra hungry. Yeah, alright, well I'll see you here in a few minutes. Yup, bye."

He hung up the phone in its cradle before looking at Judy who wore an expression of cluelessness. "Oh, an old friend of mine," he said pointing back at the phone. "Didn't I tell you I knew everybody?"

Judy rolled her eyes and smiled. "Apparently, you do. What was that all about?"

Nick shrugged. "Haven't felt like pizza in a while. I've not gotten to speak with the poor guy for a while now," he said quietly, looking down. "I'm like that with a lot of animals actually. You lose contact pretty quick in a job like this, y'know what I'm saying?"

Judy had indeed lost some childhood friends along the way. She had been so determined to complete her academy training; she had forgotten everything else, including her friends. "I do. But you make new friends as well don't you? Me and the other officers, we're good friends aren't we?"

Nick smiled at the bunny and nodded. "Yes you are, now what do you want to do while we wait?" He asked with a chuckle. "We can see what's on TV or play a board game or something. I think I've got a deck of cards around here somewhere too."

Judy shrugged and thought for a moment. "I've got a game we could play, how's truth or dare sound?"

Nick blinked before laughing as he walked over. "I haven't played that game since I was tiny. But if you insist, I'll bite. Any house rules?"

Judy tilted her head. "Rules? There aren't many rules that I remember."

Nick smirked. "When I played we allowed absolutely everything. But I know some people like to, we'll say 'ban' certain lines of questioning or dares."

Judy rolled her eyes as she looked at the fox. "Nothing crazy, does that sound fine?"

He nodded. "A little vague, but hey it works. Who goes first?"

Judy shrugged. "I guess I can. Right, truth or dare?"

Nick smirked. "Dare."

It took her a little while to think of a good dare, but she eventually thought of one and smiled. "Stand on your front paws."

Nick laughed. "Aw come on Carrots, I thought you'd have a challenge for me," he said as he stood up and hopped onto his front paws with ease, balancing with an almost practiced concentration. It was only when he started to make some noise that she let him stop and sit back down. "My head feels a little funny, anyway, truth or dare?"

Judy thought for a moment before replying with dare as well and was soon attempting to recite tongue twisters. Nick simply chuckled as he watched; he knew Judy liked to talk particularly fast, so seeing her muddling up her words was pretty funny. Soon enough it was his turn again. Nick liked dares, in fact, he never ever picked truth in this game. Something that had both annoyed and pleased his peers simultaneously.

By the time the pizza arrived, Nick had eaten a sheet of paper, drank mouthwash, performed pushups until his arms felt like they'd fallen off, slammed his face in a plate of flour and had been forced to sing Gazelle's Try Everything, complete with dancing.

Judy had gotten off a little lighter, she'd had to answer some embarrassing questions but that was about it. Nick was considerably kind with his dares, either because he couldn't think of any good ones, or he couldn't bring himself to make Judy suffer.

The pizza was really good and soon the duo were fast asleep again for the night. They had decided that they'd catch up on everything in the morning and they'd account for lost sleep by enjoying their lazy day off. Nick had run off to his room to enjoy the comfort of his own bed while Judy took the couch again. So when she awoke in the morning she was a little confused.

She sat up and was wondering why she wasn't in her own bed, then as the events of the previous evening came to her she sat up and examined her uniform. It didn't look half bad, so she probably didn't need to rush home to fetch a fresh one. She looked over at the clock and saw it was around five o clock.

She could hear Nick moving about, along with what sounded like a boiling kettle and a dryer of some kind. She quickly hopped off the couch and brushed herself off, straightening her shirt before heading out into the hallway and down to the kitchen where Nick was currently sipping at a cup of what she assumed to be coffee as he, ironed a shirt with a saucepan?

Luckily for Judy, Nick saw the confusion on her face and explained. "I don't own an iron; this was a trick I learned a long time ago. You just fill the pot with hot water and use it like an iron. Sleep well?"

Judy nodded as she smirked. "You're up early."

"I'm always up early. But I'm running out of good shirts, so I thought doing some laundry might be a good idea," Nick responded as he examined the shirt he'd been working on before nodding and putting on a hanger and leaving it on a door handle with a few others. "Would you mind hanging those up for me?"

Judy rolled her eyes but still grabbed the shirts and took them through to the bedroom and hung them up inside the closet. Once again she was surprised by the sheer cleanliness of the room; the bed was perfectly made and was without a crease. She simply shrugged and walked out to see Nick who was putting away some things before heading for the door. "I'm heading out to Jitters'. Do you want me to bring breakfast back here or do you want to catch up?"

Judy shrugged. "I'm good right now, let's go."

Nick blinked in surprise but nodded. "Alright, let's go."

The pair shared a silent walk down to the café, simply enjoying the quiet morning. Judy loved this time of day, those few minutes just before sunrise when it was still chilly out and the city took on a whole different shade. Nick on the other paw, who had lived in the city his whole life, was used to the chilly grey mornings and only saw them as a reminder to wear a jacket.

Danny saw them come in and simply started preparing their order. When he dropped it off at their table Nick decided to hold him up a little. "Danny, what happened yesterday? I assume you were watching the news, it's just uh, we were a little busy and missed the rest."

Danny blinked before smiling. "Uh, everything was cleared up I believe. They're still running investigations and treatments down at the university I think."

Nick nodded and thanked him before they settled into their breakfast. Afterwards, the two looked at each other and nodded, as if knowing precisely what to do. They headed down to the ZPD for roll call, and then after that was done, they were gonna go visit the university.

One brief chat with Bogo later had them on the scene at the university, which looked much different. The air had been cleared as far as they could tell, but upon arriving Judy and Nick were both given respirators. The normally very open college campus had been covered in tents and police vehicles, and looked much like a fair or market, but without the positive vibes.

There were still people being treated on scene, Judy guessed that the hospitals were already full up. Somehow the place seemed busier than it had 'during' the shootout, there were individuals walking around in yellow biohazard gear tending to wounded and clearing up the area. After asking around they quickly found out the identity of the individual in charge of the whole operation, Colonel Inspector Sylas.

Sylas had a rather well known dark history, no one knew the full story but apparently in his younger days he had been more of a criminal than he was a cop. He had fallen on some really hard times and had served time himself. But when he came back out, he rose up the ranks faster than anyone had ever seen.

He was cold and ruthless with criminals, even zealous in his methods. He took his time but every siege, every stakeout, every encounter he went up against was defused efficiently and without further incident. Despite being a high ranking staff member of the SWAT division he refused to sit back in an office. He would always say that if you think up the plan, you should carry it out as well and so was happy to lead many into the fray himself.

This old grey wolf was one of the greatest minds in the force, one who had earned his position through hard work and patience. Almost everyone in the force knew his name as a sign of relief and confidence. He was a calm, calculating individual who was able to size up individuals at a mere glance; Judy was shaking a little just entering his tent.

He sat behind a desk and didn't even look up from his work as the two entered. "You two are late. Sleep in?"

Judy gulped; he wasn't even wearing a respirator. He seemed to wear a mixture of both uniform and casual clothing; Judy could see his blue police shirt underneath an olive green jacket, the collar of which did not fold and instead pointed out, highlighting his features a little. He wore a long dark scarf which was plainly knotted once, the tails hanging off to his right. Finally atop his head, between his pointed ears, he wore an olive green beret with his division and platoon insignia on it.

Even his voice was deep and gruff; it had an air of authority about it which made Judy feel secure. Yet it still sounded friendly and warm, which made her feel a lot more comfortable. Judy looked over at Nick and made a motion for him to keep his mouth shut before responding. "Apologies sir."

At that, he looked up and blinked as he took in their appearance. "Well, it's good to see that Bogo is keeping some sense of structure over there. Hopps and Wilde is it?" The pair nodded. "The rookies that solved the night howler case, impressive stuff I must admit. I'd love to hear the full story sometime," he said cracking a rare smile. "Although, we're not here to converse about old stories are we? A shame, you'd be in for quite the treat. I recall quite clearly a fascinating incident with a raccoon a few years back, another time maybe."

Judy was a little surprised by the wolf's demeanour; she chalked it up to the success of the university siege. "We've managed to acquire a full composition of the gas and an analysis of the weapons used on the site. Most of it is modified to administer large quantities of night howler serum to those that are unprotected. Obviously, the only use for such technology is bioterrorism," said the wolf as he stood up from his chair and walked around the desk with his paws held behind his back. He was much larger than Judy anticipated, he towered above the two of them as he walked past, motioning for them to follow as he grabbed a respirator.

They walked outside and up to the university. The short walk was accompanied with various salutes and shouts of "Sir!" as they walked by. When they arrived outside the building Sylas held up an arm. "We're not going in; we haven't had a chance to decontaminate the place." He simply put on a glove and leaned down, wiping a paw across the dirt near the entrance before presenting it to the two. "What do you see?"

Nick chuckled a little behind his respirator, "A muddy blue paw."

Sylas laughed. "Precisely. As you can see it's not just a gas, but a sort of residue," he said, pointing out the blue spots in particular. "Like dust, it hangs in the air and settles where it can. Much more effective than a toxic gas, lasts much longer." He removed the glove and deposited it in a nearby biohazard waste bin before turning to the two. "As you can see we're dealing with experts, individuals with brains, perhaps they even learned here," he said gesturing to the building. "How ironic, a university's knowledge turned against itself; it's almost poetic."

Judy and Nick had kept quiet, not wanting to interrupt him. He was droning on but Judy was sure he would have a point. "We managed to detain a few of the individuals in the assault and with some, shall we say gentle persuasion, have some leads. However, my division has got its paws and variations thereupon full here, so Bogo urged me to get you two on top of it."

Judy and Nick blinked and looked at each other before looking back to Sylas. "Y-You want us sir?"

Sylas barked out a laugh. "Don't sell yourself short Hopps; you two have quite a reputation. I figured you two with your prior experiences would know how to handle yourselves with something like this. Come, back to the tent. I'll brief you on your mission."

They headed back inside the big yellow tent and as Sylas took off his respirator, Nick and Judy decided to do the same. "Now, we were given the name of a location, Stiles Manor," he said as he retrieved a folder and gave it to the duo. "Stiles Manor is an abandoned mansion, deep in the woods south of the city. It belonged to the Stiles family if you couldn't guess, a long time ago. The entire estate has been left to crumble since they left it; at least that's what's on record."

"You really think they're out there?" Nick asked with a look at the folder. "Place looks like it's falling apart."

"It's your job to find out. Your orders are to go there, confirm terrorist activity and report back to me and only me. I have placed everything you'll need information wise in that folder, including my personal contact number should you find yourself trapped. Call it and you'll have backup as fast as a team can get there. As I stated earlier, these aren't morons with guns. They're clever and willing to risk a lot for very little. If this information is solid then we can assume this area will be highly secure and will contain everything they've been using, from labs to production lines. I must insist that whatever you find you bring back to me as soon as possible. Any questions?"

Judy and Nick looked at each other before shaking their heads at Sylas. "Good. Visit our building downtown for a full gear outfit and an escort; just give your names, they'll know what to do. You'll go in at dusk; that way we'll have time to finish paperwork here and hand everything off to a different department so we can assist. We'll clear the forest ahead of you and set up a perimeter to keep the civilians out of harms way." The wolf grinned as he sat back down in his chair. "Welcome to the SWAT division you two. Dismissed."


	10. Act 2 Chapter 4

**Just as a heads up, my spring break is just about up, and I'll have school among other things to worry about in the coming weeks. That means chapters will be a little more infrequent and their release will depend on my spare time. I do appreciate all the feedback so far, a quick shoutout to Bgnsteal and GFZootopia lover. Your frequent comments on almost every chapter help more than you'd think and they keep me writing at the pace I am now. Anyways, on with the show so to speak! Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Judy and Nick sat in their police cruiser, frowning as they finished up their patrols for the day. It had been an odd morning, to say the least. And their evening was pretty jam packed as well thanks to Sylas.

Nick had liked the old wolf and was eager to see if he'd be able to share a coffee break with the guy at some point in the near future. Judy on the other paw wasn't so convinced. She was pretty sure that he was only trying to take all the glory for himself with this whole 'tell me and we'll sort it out immediately' nonsense. Nick simply countered that he probably didn't want them to have enough time to get another university to hit, or worse if given the chance.

Like it or not Judy had to accept it for what it was. Bogo had ordered her and Nick to work for Sylas and so they had to follow his orders. "Don't you just find the whole thing kind of fishy though? I mean, how'd they get the information?"

Nick waved a paw. "This is some large scale stuff; they'll probably have a truth serum or something like it. It's the SWAT, they work differently."

"But-"

"Oh just forget it. Don't you want to put the nail in the coffin for this stupid case?" Nick interrupted. It brought up a good point. If this mansion was really the main hideout, they'd find everything they needed there. It would end this 'organisation' and their plans for the city. She really didn't like it, but she'd go through with it.

Judy sighed as she parked the cruiser. "Come on, let's go clock out. We're a bit behind as it is, no thanks to you."

Nick raised his paws in defense. "It was one mistake alright? I said I was sorry."

Judy sighed as she hopped out of the car. She still didn't believe it was possible to mistake her for an otter, but Nick had done it apparently, and she had a pretty big bruise on her head where she'd been hit with a steel pipe. By Nick.

After chatting with Clawhauser for a few minutes the two headed downtown to the surprisingly huge SWAT facility. It was like the ZPD, yet walking through the doors felt a whole lot more intimidating. It was a lot more active than the ZPD, probably due to the university attack. After giving their names to a 'receptionist' they found themselves visiting the quartermaster to receive new gear.

The quartermaster had given each of them a darker uniform to wear, a full gas mask, gloves, a full load of reconnaissance gear, a distress beacon tuned to Colonel Inspector Sylas' personal phone, a pistol with two spare magazines, torches, first aid kits and last but not least, doses of Hydroprobalin, along with a backpack to keep it all in.

Soon they were part of a convoy of police cruisers and were heading south through the city and eventually out into the country. Eventually, they came to the large Wyldfire Woods where Judy could see patrols ready and waiting by the forest perimeter. They looked well-armed and ready for a fight which Judy frowned at.

She managed to pick out the familiar figure of Sylas among the headlights and rushed over to see him, ignoring Nick who had been attempting to talk to her. "I thought you said this was going to be a simple scouting thing, what's with all this?"

Sylas smirked and chuckled quietly at the bunny. He looked even more authoritative than he had before, as he had swapped out his olive jacket for a longer beige trench coat, and like Nick liked to do, had adorned his muzzle with a pair of sunglasses. "Well, that was the plan. But plans change Hopps. We got a little more information about this place from our little friends in the stocks and well, the lads love a runout. Been a while since we've had anything to do, even patrol duty seems appealing after months of desk work."

Judy frowned and thumped her foot as she looked over to Nick who was leaning on the bonnet of the police cruiser giving her a thumbs up as she looked over. As she turned back to Sylas he continued. "We just need some good solid intel on what's in there, and that's your specialty, isn't it? We're not exactly capable of treading too lightly," he said as he gestured around. To be perfectly fair, the SWAT division 'did' employ larger animals, and a lot more of them; mounting any sort of stealth operation would be quite challenging. "So Hopps, I'd get a move on."

Judy frowned as she turned away and sighed but just then, Sylas leaned down to her eye level and kept going. "And Hopps, you ever speak to me like that again, I'll have you doing worse than this; or your badge, whichever you feel like giving up first. Dismissed."

Judy gulped and once again remembered who she was talking to. This wasn't Bogo; in fact, he seemed scarier than Bogo. Sylas liked to play in the dark with threats and shadows. At least Bogo showed his emotions a lot better. She walked back over to Nick who was still sitting with a smug look on his face. "How'd that go?"

"Come on; let's go end this stupid night howler case." Judy started walking off into the forest in the direction of the estate and Nick, with a confused look on his face, followed after her. They had studied the map they'd received carefully and knew where to go. Unfortunately, they didn't have any floor plans of the estate or anything so they'd be on their own for the most part.

Nick looked at Judy and frowned. He was pretty good at reading her for the most part and just from her body language he could tell something was eating away at her. She was all tense, her ears had fallen and she walked at a pace that even Nick was finding trouble keeping up with. He only hoped she cooled off by the time they reached the estate. Fortunately, she kind of had when they first came across the estate. It was blocked off by a wall with iron bars at the top ending in pointed spikes. The wall looked to be in a state of disrepair and was crumbling in some areas, but was still mostly intact.

"How are we going to get in?" Judy asked looking up at the wall. Whoever the Stiles family was, they were big; the wall was huge, at least three times Judy's height.

"Let's get up a tree, see if we can't spot anything from there," Nick replied and soon they found themselves climbing up an old oak tree nearby. Judy found it nigh impossible and had to be carried up by Nick who made good use of his claws while doing so. Soon they were both atop the tree, Nick panting a little heavily. "Have you always been that heavy?"

The comment earned Nick a good punch to the shoulder as she pulled out her binoculars and looked over the estate. Well, now she knew where all the ZPD's funding went. The binoculars were incredibly high tech, night vision, variable zoom, bearings and even a rangefinder. The SWAT division was certainly well funded. The tree got them above the wall and they saw the manor for real.

"There it is, Stiles Manor. What I wouldn't do to live here; if it were all fixed up of course," Nick mused quietly as he pulled out his binoculars and looked over the place. "Do you see anything?"

Judy didn't see much. "Just a crumbling ruin, do you think they're inside?"

Nick surveyed the whole area and sighed. It was impossible to tell. The windows were boarded up, he couldn't see any lights and there was no sound besides the wind whistling through the trees. "We'll have to go in to see."

"There's the gate, we'll try there."

Nick chuckled a little. "I have a feeling, that if I was working out here in secret, I'd post some way of seeing intruders…" There was a pause before Nick started again. "There! Bearing 124, do you see that?"

Judy moved her binoculars until the reading matched Nick's one and eventually she saw it. "A camera?"

Nick nodded. "An active camera, look, you can see the little light easily with these things. Keep looking around; we don't want to miss any of them."

The next ten minutes or so were spent pointing out cameras and memorizing the patterns. A further ten minutes and they had mapped out what areas would be safe to walk through. An even further ten minutes later and they had found a bit of the wall that they were actually able to crawl under and get into the grounds. They were a little muddier for it but they were in.

As they carefully followed their paths Nick threw out an arm and pulled Judy back so hard she fell over. She would have shouted at him normally but he held up a finger to his muzzle, shushing her as he pointed at the ground. Judy was confused, why was the ground so important that she had to get thrown for it? And then Nick started digging.

A few moments later and he was holding up a plastic bottle with what looked like wires attached to some tinfoil inside it. "Here we are, a little alarm for the unwary."

Judy was confused and simply looked at Nick. "What?"

He frowned. "Do you really not know what this is? A-Alright. Well, you set this up like so." He quickly grabbed one of the wires and held it up so that the tin foil ends weren't touching. "You bury it and connect this to an alarm or something. So when a certain animal steps on it…"

Judy was still lost and it showed. Nick simply made a disappointed face. "What do they teach you bunnies? Anyways, someone steps on it, the bottle gets crushed, the metal touches, the circuit completes and an alarm goes off somewhere. Get the picture?" he said mockingly as he held the bottle out in front of her.

She only blinked as the explanation sunk in. "How'd you even see that if it was buried? It's so dark out here."

Nick smirked. "Because one, I was looking for it. And two, I can see in the dark. Just, look out for any part of the dirt that looks dug up recently or, or hasn't got grass. Stuff like that," he said tossing the bottle to the side. "At least I hope it's only hooked up to an alarm. Some of those can be landmine detonators," Judy laughed a little nervously at that and Nick went back to the place he'd dug up the bottle.

He pulled at the wires until he found they went straight down. "Well, it's good to know we won't be getting blown up. But where do you think these go?"

Judy looked at the exposed wiring and blinked. "It looks like they just go down. Like, into a basement or something." Then it hit her. She looked at Nick who saw the realization on her face and simply nodded.

"Tread lightly is all, let's get inside."

They kept moving slowly along their designated paths and disarmed a few more bottle alarms on the way. One rather creatively used a pair of spoons instead of tinfoil and one was simply what appeared to be a big button buried just under the surface of the soil. Nick naturally found just about all of them whereas Judy looked on grumpily. She admired his abilities but envied them too. The next time they needed to hear something far away though, Nick would be sitting on the sidelines then.

Eventually, they found their way to the front door, where both Nick and Judy stood rather dumbly for a while, supposedly expecting the other to open the door. Eventually, Judy decided to break the silence, "Well? Open it."

Nick blinked at her. "Why do I have to open it?"

Judy frowned. "Well to get inside of course. You did know that right?"

Nick laughed quietly. "No, I meant why me specifically?"

"Because you're the male."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It's tradition for a male, you, to open a door for a female, me."

"So?"

"So you should open it."

Nick paused for a minute before responding. "Alright." He tried the door only to find it locked. "It's locked."

Judy, who had seen Nick attempt to open the door had also theorised that because it was not open, it was locked, and thus found the information pointless. And so they sat there, waiting, like someone would open the door for them. When it became apparent that this wouldn't happen, they snapped back to their senses. "Alright, what should we do? We can't get in without making a lot of noise," said Judy, her paws on her hips as she looked up at Nick.

"Luckily for you Carrots, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Or my paw, as you'll see," Nick said smiling as he bared his claws.

Judy jumped a little bit, she still wasn't used to claws and all that, but they didn't scare her as much as they used to. Nick kneeled down in front of the door and started poking at the lock with his fingers. A few clicks and clacks later, the door was open as well as Judy's mouth. "H-How'd you do that?"

Nick smirked. "Trade secret, Officer Hopps." In reality, the door wasn't locked in the first place. He just turned the handle and jiggled the door a little to create the illusion.

"We work the same trade, we're both officers," Judy said flatly.

"Then maybe someday, you'll be as good as me. Come on, let's go," Nick replied as he pulled out his flashlight and flicked it on, drawing his sidearm as well.

Judy grumbled quietly as they walked into the building but shut up as she saw the interior. Despite the outside appearance, this place was immaculate. The carpet was spotless, the wooden panels and bannisters polished to a mirror sheen. The chandelier above them held fresh unlit candles and was completely devoid of melted wax, its golden colour still shining brightly in the beam of the flashlight.

There were yellow banners bearing a crest Judy didn't recognise, she assumed it to be the crest of the late Stiles family. The crest pictured two rabbits, one white and one black, facing each other and holding up a standard which was split in half one side black and one side white, opposite to the rabbits. The Stiles' were rabbits then she assumed, how curious to find them living out in the forest in a mansion this big.

"This place is nice. I wonder if after this is all over they'd be willing to negotiate a price for it."

Judy rolled her eyes at Nick's joke. "I get the feeling that someone lives here. Why would terrorists do all this? It doesn't make sense."

"And quite rightly as well."

Who had said that? Was the thought that had gone through both Nick and Judy's heads as the voice that had just spoken was quite unknown to the both of them. They wheeled around to where the voice had come from and saw a white rabbit standing in a doorway directly ahead of them, holding onto a plate holding a candle. He was dressed in what appeared to be a robe, the same golden yellow as the banners.

"Of course, most individuals knock before they enter the premises to confirm or disprove such a theory. But, judging by the uniforms you two aren't here to discuss the day over tea and shortbread are you?"

Judy didn't like how casually he was speaking but she decided to see where this would go.

"Perhaps you'd like to talk in the lounge? I can get it lit up rather quickly, it's just down here." The mysterious rabbit walked off through another door, gesturing for the pair to follow. "And do shut the door behind you; it can get rather chilly in a big house like this."

Nick and Judy looked at each other curiously before nodding and setting off after the rabbit, after shutting the door of course. He led them to a very elegantly decorated room, within which he was currently lighting candles set in ornately shaped candelabra and sconces. Within a few moments, the room was lit rather wonderfully.

"Electricity can be quite a pain to run all the way out here, and a generator seems a tad noisy as well as expensive to run. So we decided to use an old fashioned alternative, candles. They're reusable as long as you've got the know how to remake them. You have to admit they do have quite a certain flair to them as well. Take a seat, anywhere you like."

Judy and Nick examined the many chairs and couches that adorned the large room. They looked quite comfy and they soon found themselves sitting side by side on one of the smaller couches while the robed rabbit sat across from them in an armchair.

"Now, you two must be the infamous Nick Wilde and Judy Hobs. Am I mistaken?"

Judy frowned and was quick to correct the mistake. "Hopps! Judy Hopps."

He chuckled quietly. "One's memories can become warped with age. My sincerest apologies, Judy. If you're looking for something to call me, you can simply use Stiles." Judy blinked, so the Stiles family weren't gone, how could that have gone unnoticed?

"Now that we've gotten the pleasantries out of the way, I have a question for both of you. Do you know what this is?" he said pulling a blue pellet out of his robe. Judy and Nick's eyes both widened as they saw the small blue sphere, immediately recognising it. Nick was a little hasty and drew his sidearm again, aiming it at the rabbit as he got up. Rather oddly Stiles was not fazed. "Put the gun down Wilde, it's not like I'm armed or anything. Can't we just chat?"

Nick looked over at Judy who simply stared at him blankly, giving him no advice. He begrudgingly holstered his weapon and sat back down. "Good. I'm glad we can see eye to eye on some things. Now, judging by your reaction you know what this is." Nick and Judy both nodded. "Well, you'd be right and wrong. It is night howler serum, but it's a modified serum. This will 'turn' a target savage, but unlike standard concentrated night howler solution, this provides some, benefits."

Judy tilted her head. "Benefits?"

Stiles nodded. "Enhanced strength and speed, sharpened reactions, increased brainpower; a simple boost to one's system. I wonder if you can perhaps guess the purpose behind this design."

Nick smirked. "I can only assume it's to make the savage animals even more so. One could say, lethally so."

Stiles then mimicked Nick's smile. "There really is no such thing as a stupid fox, bravo Mr. Wilde."

Nick smirked but he had seen quite enough to make his verdict and he was quite sure Judy had too. He looked around and took in a painting. "Are these of your family?" Nick asked gesturing to the portraits.

Stiles turned to look at them and nodded. "Yes, they're done by my dearest Emile. She's such a talented child. They're all asleep now, though," he said smiling as he turned back to Nick. What he didn't know however is that while his back was turned Nick had hit his distress beacon, and about half a mile away a certain wolf grinned as he heard the ever familiar tone emanate from his phone.

"So, are you behind the university attack?" Judy asked quietly.

"I suppose, in a way, yes. It's quite a story actually."

"We have time," Nick said casually, leaning back in his chair.

Stiles paused and nodded. "I suppose you do. Well, it all started a year ago, during the original night howler incident. We lived out here in solitude but my family stretches far and wide, word reached us about the attacks. We originally shrugged it off and the whole incident calmed down. But that's when we had a visitor." Stiles paused and got up, moving around the room as he continued.

"He had a proposal for me and once he explained, I understood, truly I did. He phrased it thus, 'Deep within us all is a savage, feral, primeval spark; one that can never be tamed.' He offered me safety, security, and a large sum of money too. But above all else, he offered me power. Now, I'm no politician, but one does not need to be a mayor to have power. And so I began to manufacture, this," he said stopping and tossing the pellet gently at Nick who caught it and examined it. It looked identical to the one a year ago, he wondered if it was just as effective with the additives.

"Something's been biting at me lately, which is, why'd you take all those ZPD cops? Myself included," Nick asked the rabbit as he stared at the pellet.

"Ah, now that wasn't my idea but it was my money I suppose. The idea behind it was twofold, to see how the ZPD itself could react to a situation and to get some testing done. Naturally, most of the officers are strong of mind and body, well, most of them anyways. They were ideal candidates for the test solution you are holding onto, perhaps too ideal. One nearly brought the whole asylum down when we gave him it," he said with a laugh. "It was a simple plan to execute, but we ran out of time too fast. You gave us quite a scare miss Hopps; fortunately, we were able to extract the staff and equipment in time. Bravo," he said gently clapping his paws together.

"And the university?" Judy continued.

"Part of phase two of the plan. We needed to create fear amongst the populace to the point where they didn't trust the government to keep them safe. At which point they are ousted from office and then-"

"You stage a coup d'état and put yourself at the top," Nick interrupted. "Sneaky, but it won't work; the ZPD and its associated divisions would stop you."

Stiles smirked. "I give you too little credit Nicholas. Yes, the plan culminates in a coup d'état, but I'm not going to be at the top, nono."

Nick then blinked along with Judy. "B-But, who then?"

There was a sound of a door opening behind them followed by a familiar voice. "That'd be me."

They both wheeled around and gasped at who they saw. A long beige trench coat, an olive green beret, a long dark scarf and a deep voice; all traits of a certain individual they knew. The perfect posture and pose only helped confirm their fears. The wolf slowly removed his sunglasses, smirking at the two as he did so. "Don't you two know to stand at attention when your commanding officer enters?"


	11. Act 2 Chapter 5

Sylas! Nick had been looking forward to the sound of a door being broken down followed by the pawfalls and hoofbeats of the members of the police force. Instead he got Sylas, here on his own, seemingly turned against them. "Barny Stiles, been a little while hasn't it?"

The rabbit laughed. "You got a new coat I see. It suits you."

Sylas looked at said trench coat, pulling at it with a paw. "It's quite useful, plenty of pockets. Apparently it looks good too."

Stiles sighed as he thrust his paws into the pockets of his robe. "Care to explain for our guests here?"

Sylas shrugged as he walked over and stood beside the rabbit, looking over at the stunned pair on the couch. "Zootopia is a big mess. It takes and gives randomly. A simple chance meeting can ruin your life, or improve it drastically." Judy and Nick shared a quick glance at that before looking back to the two.

Judy thought back to how many times she had been saved by luck. If she hadn't had Bellwether to bail her out after the incident with Mrs Otterton she'd have been fired from the ZPD and sent home. If she hadn't saved Fru Fru from the giant donut back in Little Rodentia she'd be dead, frozen beneath the ground of Tundratown. If she hadn't met Nick, well, her life would be a whole lot different. Sylas had one thing right she supposed.

"Zootopia needs someone better than a big softie like Lionheart or it'll never change. It needs a strong leader, one who's willing to take risks for the greater good, and bring us forward. I plan on having that leader be me," Sylas continued smirking.

Nick tilted his head at the two. "Why are you even telling us all this? You can't possibly plan on letting us just waltz out with this information." Judy frowned at him but he had a point, they knew too much already.

Sylas chuckled quietly as he turned to face the pair fully. "I'm telling you because I'm giving you two a chance. If you would simply pledge loyalty to your new mayor, you can expect a great deal more than an officer's salary, as well as some other benefits. A new house, promotions, you name it."

Judy and Nick looked at each other, surprise on their faces. "How do you know you won't trick us?" asked Nick.

Sylas simply laughed. "I'm a wolf. It's in my nature to look out for members of the pack. Besides, I believe you two could be useful pieces in the upcoming game; much akin to a well-played rook or knight. It would be terrible to waste such pieces with stupid moves when they have so much potential."

Judy then suddenly shouted out, making Sylas pull his head back in surprise. "You're…You're killing innocent citizens! How many have to die before you realize what you're doing?!"

Sylas sighed. "No game of chess may be won without losing a single piece on the board. Sacrifices must be made on both sides to achieve victory," he said, sullenly. Nick tilted his head a little; did Sylas actually feel bad about all this? "Sometimes good animals must die for great animals to thrive. I've spent a long time figuring that out. The real question is, will you be able to see the necessity of it all? To see beyond the present and into the future?"

Judy was still looking for excuses, arguments to throw at him, and she was grasping at straws now. "Why the night howler serum? What purpose could that possibly serve?"

Sylas sighed once again and sat back down in an armchair to the left of the two officers. "Its reintroduction was three-fold. The first is because it's effective; it forces an opponent to play carefully and not walk into a trap. The second is because it causes little to no structural damage, allowing us to work without the fear of knocking a building down. The third is, because it helps prevent suffering in those we unfortunately have to sacrifice."

Judy was about to interrupt again but Sylas immediately noticed and held up a paw. "Let me explain. The serum as you know affects the mind of the individual as well as adapts their physical body to fit. Many cannot see through the haze, the bloodlust, the pure instinct to compete and survive; it'd take an individual with incredible self-control to not succumb to it. The truth of the matter is, it feels good. To fight and kill and win, ignoring your own injuries and pain to survive. Nothing ignites true power within an animal than a foe's life force matting their fur, staining their claws. Even as evolved as we are we cannot deny that feeling, that rush of adrenaline; it comes from all forms of competition. And a fight to the death, is the ultimate contest."

Sylas grinned at his own words before continuing. "They feel next to no pain, only an urge to fight to their last, even the prey. Nothing fights harder than a cornered animal, an honourable way to go if you ask me. They spend their last few moments trying their hardest to bring down the creature that wronged them. As little as it may seem to you, do you not find that at least a little comforting?"

Judy paused and sighed. Besides the cruelty of it all, she could not find another argument besides the childish, 'killing is bad'. She looked to Nick for guidance who was simply sitting there with a straight face. Sylas saw he had them thinking and chuckled. "Am I finally getting through?"

Judy had no response, as did Nick. After all, it was going to be accept or die. Were they willing to die for what they believed was truly right? Or, would they be willing to get their paws dirty, and live a little longer for the 'greater good'? "Could you give us a minute?" asked Nick.

Sylas looked to Stiles who nodded. "Alright, I can give you some time to consider your options. Oh, and don't think about running. I'll make sure you both endure a living hell otherwise. You have five minutes." With that the pair walked out through a side door and Judy could hear them walking off into the distance, chatting away quietly.

"Why'd you do that?" Judy asked curiously.

"Because I don't like talking in front of them, what do you think?"

Judy looked disgusted. "What do I think? What do you think I think? I think it's insane!"

Nick tilted his head. "You do realize if we don't accept we're going to get imprisoned or worse? I don't want to die so I'm saying yes, and before you say anything Carrots, I don't like it either."

Judy was about to retort before sighing. "I rather like living too. I've still done so little, I don't want to die here."

Nick nodded. "That's right. We're young, healthy and quite good looking if I do say so myself," he said slicking back his ears with a smirk that made Judy giggle. "We can get through this. We'll come out laughing, you hear me?" Nick sighed. "Y'know, his plan besides the coup sounds okay. Lionheart hasn't been the same since he did all that time. He's been way more skittish, I can only imagine what he's like now."

Judy didn't like it but it was true. She wasn't that into politics but she knew that Lionheart wasn't doing a good job of running things nowadays. And all the candidates to replace him seemed worse in a way. Sylas was strong, courageous, able to motivate. He was already a proven leader, and it wasn't unbecoming for someone like him to take over in a situation like this. "Do you think he'll kill Lionheart?"

Nick shrugged. "Why don't you ask him yourself when he comes back? I personally think it's a possibility, he already has willing troops, and with a mind like his, an attack on city hall might be the next step."

Judy nodded. They sat quiet for a moment before Judy heard what she assumed to be their captors coming back. She was right, and they came in through the same door they left, Sylas however seemed to be carrying a tray, with some glasses and a bottle on it. He laid it down on the coffee table in the center of the room before turning to them as he poured a golden yellow liquid into each of the glasses. "Have you reached a consensus?"

Nick and Judy nodded. "We'll work for you," Judy said with a blank face. "Loyally, until this is all over."

Sylas grinned. "I had a good feeling about you two from the start; you really are a smart pair. I really hoped that you would accept. It would have been such a waste to spill more blood, especially when it's so precious. Perhaps you'll join me in a toast before we discuss how we'll operate?" he said offering the pair some of the crystal tumblers containing the drink. Nick happily took his while Judy was a little more cautious, she wasn't too keen on drinks but she didn't mind them.

Sylas and Stiles took theirs and happily raised them. "To a long and fruitful partnership. To the future!"

"The future!"

They drank and smiled weakly at each other. However Judy and Nick felt a little funny. Perhaps it was just a really strong drink; no, drinks didn't feel like this, Nick and Judy could feel their consciousness slipping away. They fell back onto the couch, struggling to keep their eyes open as Sylas leaned down. "Double cross me, and I'll see to it that it's not just you who suffers…" With that they passed out completely.

* * *

The next morning Nick and Judy awoke back home, perfectly unharmed and untouched physically. However, their deal with the devil weighed heavily on their minds because of it. Granted, they could have woken up in far worse places had they said no. They could have woken up in a tiny prison cell, hell they could have not woken up at all. But here they were, safe and sound in Nick's house. In his room. In the same bed. Nick woke up first and was a little surprised at this revelation but he smiled and crawled out of the bed carefully, not wanting to wake the sleeping Judy. He'd have to make the bed later but that was no big deal.

It was then as the morning haze that was clouding his thoughts lifted, he realized he wasn't wearing anything. Upon this discovery he quickly looked over at Judy, who was thankfully still fast asleep. He opened up his closet and found that his police uniform as well as Judy's had been freshly laundered and hung up, not a crease to be found. He shrugged it off and found himself an outfit he liked and took it through to the bathroom. He usually liked to keep his outfits hanging up as he showered, the steam helped iron them out a little.

He had a quick shower, and soon found himself sitting on the living room couch with a big omelette on a plate in his grasp. He had always enjoyed eggs, and they were an excellent source of protein for a predator like him. Granted there were many alternatives in this day and age but none were as appealing and simple to cook as eggs.

He flicked on the TV and set it to ZNN as he usually did in the mornings. What he didn't realize was that it was already 9:48. If Bogo hadn't ordered he and Judy to work with Sylas they'd be getting their ears blown apart right now. But, considering the circumstances of the entire arrangement Nick believed he would be able to enjoy his breakfast and wait for the news at ten.

The whole arrangement was a little crazy when you tried to think about it. Bogo had ordered them to work with the SWAT division in light of the attacks under Colonel Sylas, but Sylas was the one behind the attacks and had caught them, so they were working for Sylas but not in the way Bogo probably intended and…Ugh, just thinking about it made his head hurt. Nick didn't like to do much work until he had some coffee; the drink pepped him up immensely and was something he fancied himself quite the connoisseur of. He knew different blends and had his opinion on what temperature was the perfect drinking temperature, which was 54 degrees centigrade, and anyone who said otherwise immediately lost some of his respect.

It wasn't long before the news started and a familiar sight met his eyes in Peter Moosebridge and his co-anchor. He had never quite learned her name, but the snow leopard was very good at her job and had an accent which Nick found made her impossible to look away from. "Welcome to the news at ten, our stories this morning…" As per usual the scene cut to various pictures and clips from the news stories they'd be reporting on.

"Last night a jewellery store downtown was robbed, the criminals were able to slip away without triggering the alarm, police are currently asking for leads." Nick waved a paw as he shovelled a big spoonful of omelette into his face. The ZPD had bigger problems than stolen necklaces, but he supposed they couldn't just ignore it.

"Survivors from the University attack are making good recoveries as the school is cleaned up. The Zootopia SWAT division estimate that the school will be able to return to standard use by the end of the month." Nick snickered as he heard that, he shook his head at the screen and awaited the next story summary.

"And lastly, protestors have taken to city hall in force, demanding that mayor Lionheart take action to help defend the city and keep the citizens safe. The mayor has not yet released a statement about the attack on the university, and has not been seen outside of city hall since. The ZPD has dispatched officers, who have set up a barricade in response. There have been no arrests yet, but as the crowd continues to grow ZPD officers are preparing for the worst." Nick raised an eyebrow. Sylas' plan was working, the citizens were confronting Lionheart. Knowing the lion he'd probably be writing his speech right now. Lionheart hated pressure and unrest, a bigger crowd of protestors and he might just fold like a red hot chocolate bar. After seeing the crowd he was for once thankful that the ZPD was just one park's distance from town hall.

Nick never watched the news in full unless there was something interesting on, so he just flicked off the TV and after washing his plate and cutlery went back into the bedroom where Judy was still sleeping. He assumed that whatever drug they had used was having a better effect on her smaller frame. He thought about waking her, but, she looked so peaceful and happy; she must have been having a good dream.

He sat down at his desk and paused for a moment before his eyes wandered to the lower drawer of the desk. He sighed as he shook his head and went back to the laptop, but somehow his paw had developed a will of its own, and very soon he found himself opening the beaten up photo album and looking at all the old pictures. He took out his phone and called a familiar number, he didn't know why he called it as often as he did, he always got the same response. One ring…Two rings…Three rings…

He flipped the page as the ringing turned to a voice, sweet and innocent. He knew it was just the answering machine but the voice still felt comforting.

" _Hi! It's River here, I'm either out or busy right now so leave a message for me and I'll get back to you soon!"_

There was a long beep and silence, as the machine took in Nick's recording. However, he said nothing. He just stared at the pictures as tears began to fall and stain the page. He remembered that bike ride, he had almost gotten some skinned palms while trying to take the picture but it was worth it. Then there was that time at that fancy restaurant, he had gotten something a little too spicy for his tastes, River couldn't stop giggling at his discomfort. With every picture he got more and more upset. He wept quietly, the phone picking up all of it.

* * *

Judy looked on, unsure of what to do. She had woken up and had seen Nick hunched over his desk, crying. He just sat there, a sharp intake of breath contrasting the quiet sobs every now and then as he held his head in his paws, staring at the desk.

Judy was in a little deep here, she had never seen Nick quite like this. He never cried, ever. He never showed his sensitive side, especially around her. He must have thought she was still out cold. There was no other explanation for his behaviour. Then she saw the album, instantly recognising it. Maybe she should just pretend to sleep, and try to forget this happened. Although, seeing Nick like this… "Are you okay Nick?"

The crying suddenly stopped and there were a few deep breaths as Nick rubbed at his eyes before turning to face Judy. "Hey, uh, morning Carrots; have a nice rest?"

Judy nodded but grimaced at Nick's face, she could see streaks where tears had run down his face, and his eyes were near bloodshot. He was hurting, but, Judy didn't know how softly she should tread here. This was ground she had not covered before; running across a potential minefield would not be a good idea. Judy decided she didn't need to cover this ground right now, so she decided to take the safer route instead. "Your bed is a little cushier than what I'm used to. For future reference I think I prefer the couch…" she said hopping out of bed and stretching.

Nick simply stared at Judy as she stretched in front of him; it seemed that she had not yet realized her predicament. "Uh, Carrots?"

Judy opened her eyes and stopped stretching as she looked at Nick who seemed to be covering his eyes. "What?"

Nick simply pointed a finger towards the ground. Judy blinked and looked down before covering herself with a pillow faster than a speeding bullet. "Ohmygosh, Nick, where are my clothes?! If this is your idea of a joke it's not funny!" she blurted out quickly as she turned a rather adorable shade of crimson.

Nick simply pointed to the closet. "If it's any consolation, I woke up the same way."

Judy still blushing and holding up the pillow moved towards the door. "Well, I'll just uh, go and use the shower. I expect something to eat when I get out for this!"

Nick who was still covering his eyes chuckled. "I didn't do it!" There was a loud slam as the bedroom door shut and Nick uncovered his eyes. He returned the album to its rightful place and hung up the phone which had been left recording the whole conversation. He didn't care, River never called back. However it made him think, he was an officer now, and he had access to things he didn't use to. Maybe there was a missing mammal file somewhere from a long time ago. He sat and thought about things for a moment before making a decision. He looked down at his yellow shirt before shrugging; he didn't need his uniform for this. He grabbed his keys and headed out.

Judy had always enjoyed long showers, and given the occasion she decided to have one. As scrubbed and cleaned she rolled her eyes at some of the brands. Granted she was a bunny of simple tastes, but Nick seemed to enjoy squeezing every penny out of his purchases. She only hoped the scent wasn't that lingering as it was making her nose twitch in ways she didn't like. She hopped out quite a long while later, and dried herself off. Thankfully Nick was smart enough to realize that towels needed a regular wash and there were plenty to use.

When she was finally sure that her fur wasn't dripping she looked at herself in the mirror. She sighed as she looked herself up and down before shrugging and going back outside slowly, clutching the pillow tightly against herself. "Nick? Are you there? I'm out now, no funny business okay?"

She got no response and eventually pushed her way into the bedroom again, however things seemed a bit different. Nick wasn't in here, but the bed had been made and upon it was laid several items. She saw her uniform, her usual breakfast order from Jitters', and a note from Nick.

It didn't inform her of much. Nick had simply said he was going out to do some work, and that he'd be back soon. She didn't have any other choices so she put on her uniform and out of spite, began to scarf down her meal on the bed.

* * *

Nick however was at the ZPD, tapping through his computer for anything available to him. He however was unable to find any record of the vixen he was looking for and figured he needed to go deeper. He found his way down to records and after asking for the file, was given an enormous box to look through. He frowned and searched through the missing mammal files. Many had been solved, others rather off-puttingly were not. Eventually he found the case file he was looking for; missing mammal, River Vulpecula. He opened it up and fanned out the contents, inside were reports from previous investigators, each turning up nothing. Each report said the same thing; that her last known sighting was in a car heading out of the city, and as such must have been running off to the country. There was no license plate to follow, the car's make and model were unknown and the edge of the city is where the ZPD's jurisdiction ends. Granted they may take cases outside sometimes, but they weren't about to chase a fox into the countryside for no good reason.

Nick stared at the reports with a sigh. Why had she run off? He shook his head, it didn't matter she was gone and that was that. However, as he was putting everything away, he caught side of her home address. Granted he already knew it, but the reminder gave him an idea. And soon enough he found himself outside River's humble abode. He had been here many times before, but that was in the past. He knew the house hadn't been resold, or the answering machine wouldn't be working. He assumed the door was locked, and after some digging around in some plant pots found the spare key. River had never given him a key, but she always kept her spare in the same place. He would always use it and put it back, River was always wondering how he was able to get in.

He turned the key in the lock and the bolt slid back with a dull click. He pushed open the door with some difficulty due to the enormous pile of mail blocking the door, and his face suddenly fell. The whole hallway and everything in it was caked in dust. In fact simply opening the door kicked up enough to make the fox cough. He walked in slowly, shutting the door behind him as he turned on the lights. Everything was exactly how he remembered it, except for the thick layer of dust and the loud beeping coming from the answering machine. He walked over and stared down at the machine before pressing play. "You have, six hundred and thirty-seven, new messages. Message one-"

Nick hit the stop button to cancel the playback as he sighed. She was almost certainly not here, and hadn't been in a while. He turned back to the door and took notice of the mail pile. He raised an eyebrow and shrugged before sitting down in the dust and going through the pile, sorting out what might be interesting versus what was probably a bill.

When it came down to the final few, Nick had accumulated a small pile of letters with return addresses ending in the same last name, family. Some of them were quite recent too.

Against his better judgement, he cracked one open and began reading.

" _Dear big sis, happy birthday! Mom and dad told me not to bother you with a card. They said you were very busy. But I went and made one anyway! I hope-"_

Nick put down the card and opened the next one.

" _Dear River, I hope you're doing well. It's been a while since we've seen you, or heard from you actually. Could you please return our calls? I know it's not always ideal but we miss you, and we want to hear from y-"_

The letter hit the floor, chucking up a minute amount of dust as it did so. Most of the letters were similar in design, but got considerably more panicked as he went down the pile, as they became more recent. The wording became more worried and they sounded like they were begging for a response. Eventually the letters just turned into what sounded more like answering machine messages than actual conversations.

She hadn't told anyone then. She'd just disappeared, for whatever reason. He shrugged, maybe it was some big crime thing, or maybe she was being blackmailed. He shrugged and tossed the latest letter to the ground. All it had contained was a simple 'Happy birthday' along with a very simple 'please come back'. He stood there for a moment, brushing the dust off himself before kicking the neat stack envelopes over with a loud shout. He immediately regretted it as he suddenly found himself unable to breathe for all the dust and decided to just lock up and leave it behind him.

He left the house and locked the door, leaving the key in its usual spot. He was thankful she lived on such a secluded street, as he shook himself vigorously and soon was completely devoid of the dust. He sighed as he sat down on the front steps, planning his next move. After checking the time, which seemed to be passing faster than usual as it was already almost two in the afternoon, he decided to simply return to his house and see how Judy was getting on.

She however was not all that please to see him. "Where the heck have you been!? And why do you look like an antique?"

Nick blinked and looked at his clothing a little closer. He had only shaken off the loose dust; some of it had worked into the fabric a little. "I had some detective work to do. No worries. Anything happen while I was gone?"

Judy sighed and decided to drop the subject. "Actually, yeah, Lionheart held a press conference. I taped it for you, but go change first."

Nick chuckled and nodded. He liked having Judy around. She was helping him in a way by telling him what to do, she was a little bossy about it but he didn't care. When he was all clean and dust free in his trademark green shirt he sat down on the couch and turned on the TV, finding the recording and hitting play. After fast-forwarding some advertisements he eventually got to see the news where they were, of course, reporting on the press conference.

"And now for the conference itself." The scene cut to Mayor Lionheart who was standing behind a podium, which had adorned upon it microphones from all the news networks in town. Nick had to say, Lionheart looked a little worse for wear. But he still stood tall and proud as he usually did, and spoke with all the confidence a mayor should have. The press conference seemed to be taking place inside, which Nick found a little comforting. Nothing should be able to happen him to him inside of city hall.

"In light of the recent attacks, I ask all citizens to stay calm. I am assured by all branches of the ZPD that investigations are underway and are coming up with many leads. In the coming days you can expect to see an increase in police patrols, this is to assure the safety of the city during this time of crisis. Now, any questions?"

Naturally there was a cacophony of noise as every reporter in the crowd stuck up a paw or their equivalent of one, trying to get their question answered as fast as possible. Eventually Lionheart picked an individual and the Q&A began. "What can you tell us about the individuals behind the university attack?"

"All we know is that they're an unknown terrorist group primarily consisting of prey animals. The ZPD suspects that they are linked to former mayor Bellwether due to their methods." Nick raised an eyebrow; there was an obvious sneer at the name Bellwether. Clearly he was still a bit angry over the whole incident a year ago. He was just lucky he got his job back in Nick's personal opinion.

"Are we safe from further attacks?"

Mayor Lionheart shifted for a minute before replying. "No attack can ever be prevented one hundred percent, but now that we know this is happening we can take measures to prevent as much as we can."

"What do you have to say about the protestors?"

"Simply that all departments of the emergency services are working at maximum capacity, and we are doing all we can to keep the city safe. Stay calm, and in time this time of hardship will pass like any other."

"Have you considered a mandatory curfew?"

"It is currently under discussion. Rest assured, due to the size of Zootopia it is not a decision we are going to make lightly."

"Some are demanding you step down from office, what do you have to say about that?"

"I think right now we need to focus on our current situation. With no obvious candidates, an election at a time like this would simply be a waste of time as well as a target."

Nick had to admit, he was certainly keeping composed. I guess that was the mark of a good politician. Anytime Bogo held a press conference, all questions that put his status or the status of the ZPD in question were met with a stern look and a snort. Judy came through and sat down beside him as he continued to watch the Q&A. "What do you think?"

Nick sighed. "I think he's doing a good job, if they listen to him Sylas is gonna have a bit of a hard time."

Judy nodded. She was about to start talking when two dings grabbed their attention. They quickly pulled out their phones to see the texts that they had just received. _"86 Pinecone Lane. 5:30PM. Don't be too late."_

They looked up at each other and blinked. "Think it's Sylas?"

Judy rolled her eyes. "Of course it is, who else would it be?"

Nick shrugged. "Maybe it's some really odd marketing campaign. Maybe when we get down there we'll find a funfair," he said smirking.

Judy rolled her eyes. "Let's just get ready."

* * *

5:30 rolled around pretty quick and soon they found themselves knocking on the door of 86 Pinecone Lane. This street was out in the suburbs, just on the outskirts of Tundratown. They half expected to see Sylas when they opened the door, but instead they got a rather lithe wolf, his fur white as the snow that lay around them. He wore a red button up shirt with a fancy pattern, the collar sharp and pointed. Besides that he wore a simple pair of jeans and a pair of glasses, which sat comfortably perched upon his muzzle. He didn't look like much, but the duo had been ordered here for a reason. "Hopps and Wilde I take it?" When they nodded he simply led them inside. "Welcome to my humble little abode. It's not much, but hey, she keeps me warm." The wolf said with a smile.

Judy and Nick were led into the living room which was rather quaint. The wooden furniture looked ancient as did the decoration. There was a big painting of some snowy mountains above the hearth, in which a cozy little fire was lit. The duo were almost taken aback, they had expected a dark room with a single light and thugs who would keep them in check; not some cosy cottage on the edge of Tundratown with a well-mannered wolf to greet them.

"Would the two of you like some hot cocoa?" Judy had decided against drinking beverages given to her by strangers, but Nick happily accepted. The wolf went off and came back rather quickly with two steaming mugs of cocoa, each topped with whipped cream and marshmallows. Judy instantly regretted not taking the offer. "My name, is too long and silly to say so I normally go by the short and simple, Trev."

Nicholas chuckled a little. "Right? Tell me about it. Why waste breath when a simple 'Nick' is fine?"

Judy blinked. "What's wrong with Nicholas?"

Nick shrugged. "It's two syllables longer than it could be. I could use those to add, 'likes pies' instead of saying my full name."

Trev simply chuckled. "I get three extra syllables out of mine. But that's beside the point. You two are probably wondering what you're doing here." They simply nodded and Trev continued. "Well, Sylas didn't have time to see you himself so you get me. He thought I'd be a 'welcome change of pace'," he said rolling his eyes as he made the air quotes. "Normally he does things like this himself or gets one of the soldiers to do it."

Nick chuckled but Judy simply tilted her head. "So, why are we here?"

The wolf held up a paw as he sipped his drink, before getting up and retrieving something from the next room. "I'm supposed to brief you on your assignment, which is to distract the ZPD so they'll be a little slower to respond to what Sylas has planned."

"Which is?" Nick asked as he wiped some whipped cream from his muzzle.

Trev simply shrugged. "I don't know; I'm just a comms guy mainly. He likes to keep things on a 'need to know' basis usually. Makes pinning thing on him a lot harder. Now, the plan is as follows," he continued, opening the folder he had retrieved from the other room. "While on patrol, you two will go out in pursuit of a 'suspicious vehicle'. This vehicle however does not exist, and you will drive to the edge of the city before getting out and alerting the ZPD of a, oh for crying out loud just read it."

He slid the file down the table towards them and went back to his cocoa. Nick chuckled, he liked this guy. Trev seemed pretty cool, even if he was working for Sylas. "Why are you working for Sylas? What'd he offer you?"

Trev simply shrugged. "To be honest he didn't offer much," he said pushing his glasses up. "Maybe it's just my job, he went around recruiting and anyone who said no seemed to be transferred pretty quickly. Luckily he got to me last, and well, I like my current place so I agreed."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "That's it? You're not bothered by the methods at all?"

Trev sat up in his chair and sighed. "To be honest, it has come to mind, I just try not to think about it. But at this point I don't think I'm gonna be allowed to just walk out."

Judy who had been reading the file perked up a bit. "So you don't want a part of this either? Does Sylas know?"

Trev shrugged. "If he did I doubt I'd be the one speaking to you. To answer your first question though, I think I'd prefer a quieter job. But what am I gonna do? What are you gonna do to stop him?"

Judy and Nick looked at each other. "We need evidence, enough to prevent him from becoming mayor and hopefully arrest him," said Judy as she thought aloud.

"Sylas is a tricky guy, he likes setting things up so only he can see the bigger picture. Your assignment for example, it just tells you what to do. It doesn't tell you what that accomplishes in the long run. Almost all of them are the same. That folder itself isn't enough to work with," Trev explained.

Nick sighed. "We'd need hard evidence. A voice clip or, or a recording. Something we can nail him to the wall with."

Trev shrugged as he sipped his drink. "Or you could kill him."

Nick and Judy both looked over to him with slightly disgusted faces, to which he just blinked. "What? It's not like he's immortal or anything."

Judy tilted her head. "Did you maybe forget the part where, I don't know, killing is illegal? What if we got caught?"

Trev put down his mug and leaned forward. "Personally, I think it's the best option outside of letting him do what he likes. He's an old wolf, lived his life."

Judy sighed. "We'll go with our current plan for the time being. Let's just, just go along with this stupid plan and maybe we can find something to pin him with."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "You know, this is going to be the foundation for another attack. Are you sure?"

Judy grumbled. "We don't exactly have a choice."

Trev nodded. "We can't show our hand when all we've got is a high card. Let's just sit and wait a while, see what cards fate deals us. It might not be pretty but it might be just what we need."

Nick simply smiled, he was glad they had a new ally they could work with. And he seemed like a pretty cool guy, his hot cocoa was certainly nothing to shrug off. Judy on the other paw was still suspicious, but she'd trust him for now.

"So, partners?" Nick said, holding up his mug towards the wolf.

There was a loud clink followed by a laugh as some cocoa splattered on the table. "Partners."

* * *

 **And there you have it, Act 2 complete. This one was a bit of a doozy to write, there was so much I wanted to put in and it eventually just became a big mess of words. I've been building up a lot for Act 3 and I'm pretty sure you're going to like what I have planned. Now, this chapter is particularly long. I'm going to be a little slower with my writing due to my schoolwork and exams which are in May. I actually have my first one on May 9th. So I will apologize in advance for how infrequent these chapters will be. I'll try to keep them weekly at the very most. I'm actually planning on doing a lot of writing tomorrow in honour of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, so that's that.**

 **Anyhoo, I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support of the story and I'd like to share with you some good news. While this story may be reaching its last legs, I already have pages of new ideas for Zootopia fiction. Rest assured I'll explore as many of them as I can, so stick around!**

 **Anyways, it's 11:14PM as I write this and it's been a twenty hour day for me of schoolwork and chores and exercise. I don't want to keep you waiting so I'll forgo the full spell and grammar check tonight. I'll probably make edits in the morning when I have coffee in my system. I hope you've enjoyed Act 2 of Blazing Darkness, look out for Act 3 next week.**


	12. Act 3 Chapter 1

Nick and Judy had left Trev's house that night with newfound courage. While they didn't feel too good about doing Sylas' dirty work, Nick likened it to making an omelette. They didn't have much information on Sylas, certainly not enough to incriminate him. So they were currently driving around near the outskirts of town, ready to begin their first mission. "So how do you want to do this?" Judy asked as she drove further and further from the city.

Nick simply chuckled before grabbing the car's radio transmitter, "This is Officer Wilde, Officer Hopps and I have spotted an 11-54 leaving the city, pursuing."

The response from the clueless Clawhauser, on the other paw, came quickly. "Okay Wilde, can you get the license plate number?"

Judy looked a little worried, as naturally, there was no suspicious vehicle at all, and a false license plate would immediately shoot up a red flag. However, Nick's quick thinking saved them again, "The vehicle has no visible rear license plate, hence the call."

"Roger Wilde, pursue and apprehend. Keep us informed."

Nick put down the transmitter with a smug grin on his face while Judy smiled at him. "Sly fox." Nick bowed low, well, as low as he could in a car. They continued to drive out of the city and turned onto a side road that had been selected purely for its seclusion. That was when they hopped out of the car and Nick drew his pistol, smiling a little as he did so. "Now for the fun part, you know what to do."

Judy nodded as the fox walked off for fifteen paces or so before stopping and holding up his firearm in the air, waiting for Judy to give the signal. She picked up her radio, took a deep breath, summoning all of her dramatic prowess before finally holding down the transmit button. "Shots fired! Four suspects with firearms and-" she squeaked as Nick fired a few rounds into the air, transmitting it all to Clawhauser.

"11-99, code 3! We need backup right-" A few more shots from Nick pierced the evening air, and Clawhauser could be heard requesting backup from anyone and everyone he could. Judy simply sighed as she walked over to Nick who was smirking happily.

"That was fun! Care to try?" He asked as he changed magazines, pocketing the spent one. "We do probably need to hit the car a few times. Make it more believable."

Judy didn't like the idea of shooting up a police vehicle, but she had to admit, something about the idea made her feel a little giddy with excitement. She unholstered her small pistol that she had received from the SWAT team and flicked off the safety. Then the pair pulled their weapons on their vehicle, firing bullet after bullet into the car.

When their weapons were empty and their fun had been had, Nick kicked around the casings a little. "Right, that seems pretty good. One last thing to do."

Nick walked back up to the car and reloaded his weapon again before opening the bonnet and taking note of the engine placement before stepping around to the side and firing some more accurate shots into the front end of the car.

Judy seemed a little confused and walked up beside him. "What are you doing?"

Nick stopped firing and looked back at her. "I'm killing the engine, so we can say they drove away and we couldn't move. It's this or the fuel tank so take your pick."

Judy decided she did not want to blow up the car and so sat back as Nick fired a few more shots into the car before the sound of sirens made him stop. He kicked the shell casings away and put away his weapon before leaning casually on the hood of the car. Judy did the same as suddenly, cruiser after cruiser came up the small country road, Officer Wolford hopping out of the lead vehicle as they came to a stop. "Nick! Judy! Are you guys hurt? Where are the suspects?"

Nick sighed as he pointed further down the road. "They drove further ahead. The car's kaput though, blammo, so we're stuck here. Mind helping us push it out of the way?"

Wolford nodded and beckoned to the car where Officer McHorn came out and walked over, and all four of them together easily pushed the car out of the way. Some of the other officers left on the trail of the 'suspects' while Wolford decided to stick around with some of the other detectives and set up a road block.

Gear was set up quickly and soon the entire area was sectioned off as detectives came in and inspected the area. Judy and Nick sat on a hill nearby as they watched the crew get settled in. They were waiting for their radios to begin buzzing with news of another attack, but nothing had come yet. Nick suspected it was a test, a simple test of their loyalties. Sylas had access to all police records and would be kept in the loop about any operations. He'd have heard about this.

Wolford trudged up the hill, his dark fur gleaming in the sunlight as he came up and sat down beside the two. "So I hear you guys got in a gunfight hm? How was it?"

Judy was the one to fake their innocence this time, opening with a little laugh. "It's pretty scary. Even thinking about it gives me the shivers."

Wolford nodded and sighed. "It's a shame that it's necessary, but hey, that's technology for you isn't it? What about you Wilde? Had enough action for one day?"

Nick laughed. "It's been a heck of a morning, I wonder if they've found the car yet."

Wolford waved a paw. "Naw, we'd have heard about it. You sure you two are okay? Jokes aside, you got in some serious trouble and it's not even noon; you might want to take the day off."

Nick chuckled. "Think buffalo butt would let us just walk out? He's probably got some more work for us."

Wolford tilted his head. "Well, I suppose that's true. Man, you guys are getting all the good assignments lately."

Judy was the one to raise an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean?"

The wolf laughed as he turned to Judy. "You serious? You got to go work for the SWAT guys for ages and now you're finding things like this on patrol. I'm lucky if I find a drunk driver nowadays."

Nick laughed. "Well, at least you don't have piles of paperwork to get through."

Wolford grimaced. "Yeah, I suppose. But still, it's nice to get out of the boring patrol routes now and then," he said standing up. "I better get back down there. Oh hey, I meant to ask. A couple of us are off duty tonight, we're all heading out to that new bar near Little Rodentia, the Crown I think it was called. You know, if you guys have the time to spare you're welcome to come along," he said with a smile.

"I'd love to!"  
"I'd love to…"

Despite saying exactly the same phrase, the tone made all the difference. Nick looked to Judy and blinked. "What, you don't want to come?"

Judy frowned. "I think I'd rather get some more work done Nick. You should too!"

Nick waved a paw. "The work'll be there in the morning. Relax a little!"

Judy shook her head. "You go have fun. I'll probably be at my place if you need anything."

Nick shrugged and looked to Wolford with a grin. "I'll be there. Shoot me the address," he said holding up his phone a little.

The canine grinned happily as he walked backwards. "I will, see you there." With that he ran off back down the hill, leaving the two alone.

"You should really be working Nick. We've already got a mountain of paperwork to get through as is," Judy said looking up at the fox.

"You might. But an officer as brilliant as me finishes his reports quickly and efficiently so that he is prepared for anything," Nick said with a sly smirk that earned him a punch to the shoulder.

"You mean you finished them lazily with a bare minimum of content most likely. Just don't be asking me to pick up your slack after this!" she said frowning.

Nick held up his paws. "I'll just need to file a report on this 'incident' and I'll be good to go. Relax Carrots."

Judy growled. "How can you act so casual!? When we have a crazy person trying to overthrow the government with mphfphfhp!"

Nick held a paw to her mouth quickly as he looked around, making sure everyone was out of earshot and that she had stopped talking before releasing his grip. "Be careful, we leak this to anyone and we're brown bread, Carrots."

Judy tilted her head. "Brown bread? What is that, bad slang?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "It means dead. It means we're gonna be very dead if Sylas finds out. We have to be smart about this, just take things slow. Trev said he'd work on getting us some intel we can use. After that, we give it to the reporters and he'll be ruined. We just have to keep our heads until then. Okay, Carrots?"

Judy took a few deep breaths and nodded. The plan they had all come up with was simple enough. Trev had suggested it as the best option at the time, and that he'd try to keep his eyes and ears open for anything he could use. "Do you really think we can trust him? What if Sylas put him up to this?"

Nick sighed. "Do you have any other ideas? We're not SWAT anymore; we don't have access to him. We'd be questioned upon even entering the building now. Sometimes, you have to grasp at straws."

Judy didn't like the idea but she nodded and stood up. "I'm gonna get back to the ZPD, get started on the reports. Coming?"

Nick waved a paw. "I think I'll sit here and admire the scenery a little more. You go on ahead. I'll see you in a few, or tomorrow if I don't."

Judy waved goodbye and walked down the hill as Nick leaned back and stared at the sky.

* * *

The evening came and passed quickly and yet Judy found herself still swamped in paperwork. She rubbed her eyes, saved the document she was typing and rested her head on the keyboard, shutting her eyes to stop them stinging. She was extremely tired and ready for a short evening of dinner and sleep.

No attack had occurred that day rather fortunately. Judy began to share Nick's theory that this was simply a small test. Sylas must not want to risk something big on the assumption that they wouldn't turn on him.

After a few minutes, she lifted her head and opened her eyes again, seeing that the word document she had been typing was now apparently nothing but the letter 'g' repeated over and over. She closed the document and shut down her computer, her eyes still stinging from the combination of monitor light and fatigue.

She had a quiet walk home and simply collapsed atop her bed, praying for sleep to take her quickly. It occurred to her she hadn't slept in here for quite a while. It felt nice to sleep in her own bed again, even if Nicks was comfier.

She closed her eyes and lay there, various scattered thoughts flying through her brain. How was Nick doing? What would happen tomorrow? What would the city be like with Sylas in charge? What would her life be like if she hadn't done what she had done? All things she considered while attempting to sleep. Eventually, she drifted off, and what felt like moments later to her, she awoke to a lazy knocking at her door. Her head tilted to stare at the alarm clock on her desk, which read 2:13AM.

She could hear rain, heavy rain from the outside. It was accompanied by thunder, and Judy sat up to make sure she hadn't imagined the knocking. Sure enough the sound of wood being hit echoed through her small apartment and she crawled out of bed wearily before going to open the door. Who she saw made her sigh.

"Nicholas Wilde."

Sure enough, there stood the fox in his casual evening wear, soaked to the bone and dripping all over the wood floor. Probably for the best, the floors in this place looked like they hadn't been cleaned in millennia. "Heeey there Officer fuzzywhiskers! Look, I know, I know it's late…"

Judy smirked. "I'm sure you do."

Nick chuckled quietly. "C-Can I come in? It's rainy outside and I c-can't drive…" he said casually with a drunken smirk on his face.

Judy looked him up and down. He was completely soaked, and his place was quite a long way away. She didn't want to send him back out into the freezing rain, but she also didn't quite want to let him in either. He was dripping wet, and unless he wanted to catch a cold he'd have to be…Stripped down. And even then, where would he sleep? At the desk? In her bed? Well certainly not her bed, he was drenched after all.

She nervously invited him inside and he smiled at her. "Thaaaanks Carrots, I didn't know what to do after they closed up…"

She smiled. "Well, you are pretty drunk. Have a good time then?"

Nick nodded. "It was pretty crazy…You wouldn't have a towel anywhere would you?"

Judy quickly found some large towels and passed them to the fox. "Right, well if you undress and dry off I suppose you could take the bed just for tonight."

Nick blinked. "What? Oh right, clothes get wet too," he said with a laugh as he took the pink towels and begin to loosen his tie. Judy averted her eyes for a while and looked out the window as Nick dried off. It really was pouring out there, and the flashes of lightning in the distance certainly looked intimidating. She liked to count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder that followed. Upon some quick calculation, she found the storm was going away at least.

Eventually, she turned back to Nick, who was still after all this time fiddling with his tie. It looked like he had only managed to tighten it into a metaphorical Gordian knot. He kept making grunting noises as he drunkenly clawed at it, which in practice only tightened the knot further. He couldn't even loosen it enough to get it over his head anymore either.

Judy let out a sigh as she walked over and grabbed his tie, pulling on it and bringing him down with it. Suddenly unbalanced, Nick fell on his belly at Judy's feet as she brought the knot around and began fiddling with it. Eventually, she managed to undo the knot, her paws painfully sore after.

Nick had been awfully quiet, and it was because he had fallen fast asleep on the floor. Judy sighed and contemplated leaving him there. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed and get a few more hours rest, but she wasn't about to let Nick soak and shiver in the middle of her floor as he mumbled quietly in his sleep.

She flipped him over and unbuttoned his shirt, taking it off and wringing it out before leaving it to dry. Then she turned and stared at his pants. She unbuttoned the garment and laid a towel over them to give Nick a little decency before she reached underneath and wriggled off the last of his clothes, laying them next to his shirt before wrapping the towel more tightly around the fox and laying him on the bed. She had to admit, he suited pink pretty well.

The fox grinned in his sleep as he snuggled into the warm blankets. "You are a dumb fox aren't you?" she said quietly with a grin on her face.

Nick mumbled as he flipped himself over onto his belly, letting out a deep breath through his nose. "What are we gonna do Nick? We're in real trouble and you're going out partying…"

Judy sighed as she sat down on the bed beside the sleeping fox. "We have to be working harder than this. If we just tried, maybe we could find the dirt we need to pin Sylas to the wall."

She turned to look at Nick who was busy muttering something about blueberries at which she giggled. She simply leaned back against the fox, using him as a backrest as she shut her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep again.

* * *

 **Sorry, it's been a while, but I've been extremely busy and entertained these past few days. Overwatch (A game I've been watching for months) went into beta last week and I've been non-stop playing it. I also got back into some other Blizzard games and so have been spending most of my time there. I also have been studying for my examinations, one of which I had yesterday. I thought I'd get this chapter out rather than hold it back for another week, so enjoy!**


	13. Act 3 Chapter 2

The trio of individuals sat around a table in Jitter's, eagerly planning their next move. Danny had been happy to see his favorite customers bring someone new for once, and happily got them their usual orders as well as taking Trev's rather simple order of coffee and some biscuits.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"

Judy and Nick looked at each other then back to Trev before sighing. "Good please."

"Well, the good news is I've found out that Sylas is having a bit of an important meeting next Tuesday. Seems pretty big, he seems to be making a move. If we could get in there with some recording equipment we'd almost definitely find something to use," said the wolf as he munched on a biscuit.

"And the bad news?" Nick asked with concern. "Also, could you sugarcoat it a little?"

Trev simply smiled, wiping some crumbs from his muzzle before nodding. "The bad news is we aren't invited, and I have no idea where he's holding this meeting."

The trio fell silent as they thought things over. "Could we bug him?" Nick asked curiously.

"I don't think he's just gonna let us come along if we ask nicely," Judy said with a giggle.

Trev simply chuckled. "He means a technological bug. It's a small transmitter fitted with a microphone that you would attach to clothing. And yes, that would work; if we had one."

There was another brief silence before Judy tilted her head. "Where would we get one?"

The wolf shrugged and sighed. "I doubt it would work regardless. But there's something else I can try. I can try and get access to his mobile phone remotely, set it so it constantly records and broadcasts everything it picks up. Might take up a bit more battery life but hopefully, he won't notice."

Nick tilted his head. "You can do that?"

"Of course I can. It's a fairly simple process. It might not be our best option but unless you have any other ideas…"

Judy and Nick did not, and they simply sat back in their chairs as Trev started talking to himself, listing out things he'd need to do.

"How about Trevaughn?"

Trev simply chuckled as he stopped talking and looked to Nick. "This again? You aren't going to guess it."

Nick simply smirked. "There aren't many names that 'Trev' could be short for. So…Is it Trevaughn?"

The wolf simply smiled. "No."

"Trevarius?"

"Nope."

"Trevelyan."

"Uh uh."

"Trevione."

"Just stop Nick…"

Judy rolled her eyes as she poked at the remains of her cake. She listened to a couple more guesses before sighing, "It's Trevallion."

Both wolf and fox turned their heads to the bunny, surprise etched on their faces. "How'd you know?" asked 'Trevallion' curiously.

"I saw your ID when you took out your wallet to pay," she said simply. "Wasn't that hard."

He smirked. "You've got some sharp eyes."

"Sharp ears too, they got sick of hearing Nick's terrible guesses. Trevrizante? Really Nick?"

The fox shrugged and smiled at the bunny before going back to his coffee.

"Trevallion junior actually. My dad, the big pile of manure that he is thought it'd be a good name for me." Judy and Nick looked at each other with slight concern. You could be deaf and simply feel the sheer venom in his words. Both of them decided today was not the day to question it. "You know I've actually thought about getting it changed. But for now, Trev is just fine."

Nick nodded. "So what are you gonna do after this is all said and done? You said you wanted something a little quieter to do."

The wolf rubbed the back of his neck, adjusting his glasses a little. "I haven't given it much thought, just a desk job is fine with me. Hey, you guys need a good dispatcher? I can do something like that."

Nick didn't quite know what to think. While Clawhauser did his job good enough, he might not have been the best choice for the role. He was prone to panicking at the worst of times, and it was not uncommon for him to miss a call in due to his work at reception. Having a dedicated police dispatcher would certainly do wonders for the team; he wasn't quite sure how Clawhauser would react though. "Might be a possibility."

Trev simply smiled back at them as he played with his empty mug. "Alternatively, I could just stay where I am. I know what I said but, it's good work. Good pay, good time, I don't really mind as long as I get my paycheck on time."

Nick raised a glass to that while Judy frowned. "So, you think this is just about over? We almost have what we need to foil Sylas' plan," said Judy crossing her arms.

Trev nodded. "Yeah, not as action packed as you might see in the movies, but we'll have him right where we want him if we can get the information and release it before he does anything else that's a little crazy."

"So we get the information, leak it to the press and then what? Confront him with it?" Nick asked curiously.

"Perhaps that would be the best option. Bring a couple officers with you just in case and take him away. Sylas is quite a smart wolf, he's definitely the type to know when he's been beaten," replied Trev pushing his glasses up his muzzle. "He'll probably come quietly. But if he doesn't, well, you're going to have a bad time. Make sure you're wearing something protective."

Nick and Judy glanced at each other nervously before turning their gaze back to the wolf. "How so?"

Trev raised an eyebrow. "He has probably spent more time in the field than most of the SWAT division. He's quite old for an officer of the law but he's still very dangerous. He's one of the best shots out there and he's no stranger to fighting unarmed either. If he decides he doesn't want to spend any more time in prison well, I hope you're good with a tranquilizer gun."

"I bet twenty bucks I could beat him with an eyepatch on and one arm tied behind my back," said Nick with a laugh.

Trev laughed rather raucously as he stared at the fox. "That'll be the easiest twenty bucks I'll ever make."

Judy simply rolled her eyes as she got up from her chair and walked behind the counter, off into the back of the small shop to go visit Eve. She was busy rolling out cookie dough but paused when she saw Judy. "Hey there Judy, come to lend me a paw?" she asked with a smirk.

"I just came to have a chat, it's hard to be one's self in the company of males," she said jokingly as she walked over. The smell in the room was absolutely overpowering; the dough, the baking, the chocolate…Despite having just eaten Judy suddenly felt the urge to stuff her face with baked goods.

"That is very true. They do seem to live in a world of their own. Then again, it must look the same way to them," she said as she threw the rolling pin over her shoulder where it landed the sink with a clang. "Did you know Danny drinks?" When Judy shook her head Eve giggled. "He gets very giggly when he's drunk. Once I found him just rolling back and forth on the bed while giggling like a little school kid."

The image that planted itself in Judy's brain at that moment was more than enough to reduce her to a giggling mess. "Yeah, just like that! Minus the bed bit of course," said Eve as she smiled at the laughing bunny. "So how's it going? Is Nick okay?"

Judy calmed down a little and nodded. "Nick's just fine, I suppose. He's been um…No, I shouldn't talk about that. It's none of my business anyways."

Eve raised an eyebrow and stopped working as she turned to Judy, wiping her paws on her apron. "You've gone this far, might as well speak your mind. I'm not about to go blab about it," she said with a smile.

Judy paused before shrugging her shoulders and coming out with the information. "Well, Nick's been getting upset lately over an old vixen he used to be with that's all."

Eve's ears perked up as she smirked. "Did you catch her name? I might know her."

Judy nodded again as she stepped a little closer, leaning against one of the countertops. "River, I didn't get the last name. Apparently she-"

"Disappeared? Yeah I know all about that," Eve interrupted, much to Judy's surprise.

"Were you a friend?"

Eve sighed and nodded. "Small world huh? I never knew she was dating Nick though, I do wonder what made her run off so suddenly, or where she ran off to."

Judy blinked. "Maybe I should have a dig into the records…"

The arctic fox chuckled as she took a tiny bite of spare cookie dough before re-rolling it out. "She just disappeared off the map one night. No idea why, it sounded like she was having a good time; she had Nick, she had her job…"

Judy out of habit jotted the information down before jumping as she heard Nick call her through from the other room. She thanked Eve for the chat and run back through, making a face at Nick. "What?"

"We were just getting ready to go. I thought I'd call for you instead of just leaving you here," he said with a smug smirk Judy just returned with a blank look and a shake of the head. "So are you coming are not?"

At that moment a very loud song began playing, making the trio jump. It was Trev's phone; Judy was enjoying the tune so much that she was a little upset when he answered it. He held up a paw for silence from them as he took the call. "Hey D. I'm just getting coffee bud. No, I am not bringing you one. I don't care; I'm not bringing you a coffee from halfway across town. We have a kettle and instant stuff in the break room just use that. Well then buy better coffee you dolt!"

Judy and Nick were happy to just sit and watch Trev chat to whoever he was talking to. Judy could faintly hear the voice of the caller but couldn't quite make out his words. "Uh huh, yeah I know. Why'd you even call anyways? Right. Yeah, Tuesday I know D. Wait, why me? Uh huh. Can't he get someone else? Like Jackie or something? Just me then, fine. Yeah, sure, I'll see you later. No, get your own coffee D." He hung the phone up and laughed loudly, much to the surprise of the others.

"What was that about?" asked Judy tilting her head.

"Apparently, Sylas wants me at the meeting. For what reason I have no idea, but that'll make recording it easier," he said smirking to which Nick tilted his head.

"What if you get caught?" he asked curiously.

Trev waved a paw. "You underestimate me, Wilde. I'm no fox, but I can be pretty sneaky."

Judy smiled as she rubbed her paws together. "This is going well. Let's just hope nothing crazy happens till Tuesday."

* * *

Luckily nothing serious occurred, it was just another quiet few days for Nick and Judy. They hadn't had much to do and as such had lazed about most of the weekend. So when Tuesday finally rolled around, they were just as lazy as ever. They had finished their morning patrols and were busy sitting at home, watching the television.

"Why do even watch this stuff? You can just head outside and see it for yourself. It's not that far away," Judy said rolling her eyes.

Nick simply turned off the television and got comfy on the couch, draping his arm over his eyes. "Because if you haven't realized it yet Carrots, I'm pretty happy just sitting here."

"Laying here."

"Laying here, of course."

"Why do you do that? Doesn't it kill your neck to try and watch TV?" she asked curiously as she poked at his foot.

"Not really, I just watch it at a ninety-degree-angle. Y'know I used to turn the TV on its side to compensate, made things a whole lot easier."

"Why don't you do that now?" Judy asked pointing to the normally orientated TV.

"One, because you're here, and two, it's heavy as all hell."

Judy giggled before looking down and sighing. "You think Trev's doing okay?"

Nick nodded, as best he could while lying on his side. "It's just a meeting. What could go wrong?"

"Yeah, but if he's wearing a wire…And they catch him…"

"Just calm down a little. I'm sure he's going to be fine."

Almost on cue, Nick's phone started to ring. He looked at the caller ID and noted it was Trev. He told Judy and answered. "Hey Trev, how's it-"

"Zip it for a second, have you seen the news?!"

Nick blinked and reached for the remote, sitting up. "No, why? What happened?"

"The mayor got shot. Sylas' work."

Nick's eyes widened and he quickly found the news channel for Judy as he got up and walked out to better hear Trev. "Why didn't you tell us? We could have-"

"I've been stuck in a boardroom all morning. I couldn't just walk out. He made the call while I was in there, I'm out near Little Rodentia right now, away from any prying eyes."

Nick sighed as he looked back into the living room, where Judy was sitting eyes glued to the screen. "Alright, is he okay?"

"Okay is probably the last word I would use. He isn't dead if that's what you meant. It went straight through his shoulder, nearly took his arm off by the looks of things, but he's alive. He's still in surgery from what the news is saying."

"Please tell me you got the information we needed," Nick asked rubbing his muzzle.

"Yeah, you could say that. It got sent to my desk in the office. I need to get there and go over it but I have it."

"Good, if you can get that done then-"

"I'm being tailed," came Trev's voice, suddenly panicked and hushed. "These two have followed me around every corner and are gaining. Look, the whole file is on my computer at the department, the password is expedition, one two, period, no capitals or spaces. If you don't see an exclusive on Sylas tonight I need you to go get the word out. I don't know what these guys are gonna do when they catch up to me but Sylas isn't the forgiving type. Don't worry about me, just get the job done. Okay? Gotta go."

Nick pulled the phone away and stared at it as Trev hung up. He was fairly sure they'd need to get to work, and fast. Or perhaps that's exactly what Sylas wanted. If he suspected Trev he probably suspected them too. But he didn't have any evidence yet as far as he was aware. Nick pocketed the phone and walked back into the living room where Judy was still sitting there staring. "How is he?"

"They say he's still in surgery, so, alive for now. What did he say?" she said turning to face the fox.

Nick paused for a minute. He wondered whether it would be easier to maybe leave Trevor's fate out of his explanation. He decided to only bring it up if it was necessary. "We have to go play whistleblower and send the voice file to the press."

Judy tilted her head. "Why can't Trev do it? He's closer."

Nick sighed. "He got pinched. It's our job now, we've got to get to his computer and send the file."

Judy stood up and put her paws on her hips. "Alright then, let's go!"

"Whoa whoa whoa ease up on the gas Carrots, Sylas just sent two goons after Trev after finding him on the phone to someone else, which I'm thinking he presumes is us. If we just charge into the building we'll be extremely suspicious."

Judy sighed. "Then what? We sit and do nothing?"

"I say we wait for a good opportunity and then go in. With Lionheart out of the picture for the time being Sylas is probably going to start positioning himself as a good political figure, that means speeches, press conferences, lots of paperwork. We wait until he is indisposed and then go."

Judy paused, crossing her arms as she looked at Nick. "But you said he got Trev, what if he talks? It's not like we swore an oath or anything, he could rat us out for a pat on the head."

Nick shook his head. "I don't think he will, he's already in too deep for them to just let him off like this."

Judy sighed, her ears dropping. "So we wait?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah we wait. We wait and we hope."

* * *

 **We're getting there, just a few more chapters to go! Sorry, I've been so slow with updates lately folks. It is still exam period for me, although my last one is on Tuesday so after that, I should be free to write a lot more.** **As always, I hope you're all having a spectacular day! (or evening) I'll see you all in the next chapter. Make sure to check out my other stories as well if you get the chance.**


	14. Act 3 Chapter 3

It was late at night when Judy and Nick had begun their covert mission to send the file out to the press. It had been three days since the assassination attempt and as Nick had predicted Sylas was beginning to take over politically in response to Lionheart's slowly recovering condition.

He had managed to win over quite a few individuals by pledging to devote himself to making the city safer, a sentiment Nick and Judy had shared a quick laugh at. Needless to say, animals were beginning to favour Sylas and his militaristic agenda. Many feared Lionheart wasn't doing enough, and with him out of the picture and Sylas promising safety and protection, many were turning their heads. Now all he needed to do was start a few small-scale attacks which he would crush in a matter of minutes.

He certainly had the resources, if he was starting these attacks he could decide how severe they were and how easy they could be stopped. With every victory, he'd win over more individuals until he was permanently in power. He had actually started off his first speech after 'stopping' a bombing attempt, which had dramatically scared the citizens into liking him.

But Nick and Judy weren't going to let that continue. They hadn't heard from Trev since the call and things only seemed to be getting worse. So they decided to get the word out.

"Remind me again why we're doing this at night?" asked Nick as they approached the SWAT building, which was still bright and operational even at this time of night.

"Because, it'll be open and the only ones there will be sleepy individuals stuck during paperwork. Who wants to stay at work this late? Not even those on the night shift enjoy it," Judy replied quickly. "So, we go get the file first. Then we check the cells for Trev, just in case. Got it?"

Nick nodded as they approached the building. "Yeah, we just need to find his office first. I'll do the work, just keep watch."

Judy nodded and they pushed open the doors to the building, where they both gulped. It was absolutely packed, more so than usual. A couple heads turned in their direction but not many, and any that did, shrugged and returned to their conversations. Sylas must have been planning something they didn't know about. "Paperwork huh?" Nick said smugly.

Judy had to refrain from hitting them as they headed back towards the offices. "We just get in, do the job, and get out. Simple as-"

"Hey, you guys!"

Both Nick and Judy pretended they didn't hear it and kept walking, unfortunately, a big bear positioned himself in front of them with surprising speed. "What are you two pipsqueaks doing here so late?"

"We're just going to see Sylas, said he wanted to talk to us personally about something," Nick chimed in quickly, smiling at the bear. "It sounded important, so I'd appreciate it if you could move and let us get there on time."

The bear raised an eyebrow at Sylas' name but moved nonetheless and walked back to his small group. "Quick thinking," said Judy when they were out of earshot and heading up to the offices.

"I had it planned, just in case. Now let's get this over with," Nick said dropping low and picking up his pace. Judy quickly followed suit. "Look for his office, it'll be one of these," he said as they entered a corridor with rooms either side, each with a name beside it. The SWAT department was much larger than they had realized. There might not have been as many personnel on sight as the ZPD, but the offices were bigger and far more cushy from what Nick and Judy could tell. It took a few minutes of searching but they found the right door, and without any witnesses. "Here we are, Lt Trevallion Whitetail. This should be it."

They pushed their way in and shut the door quietly behind them. While they had neglected to turn the lights on for obvious reasons, it was easy to see that the office was small, yet very nicely decorated. Trev certainly had an eye for this sort of thing, Nick thought about inviting him around to help paint or something if they all got out of this. "Keep watch, I'll send the file off."

Judy nodded and squinted through the frosted glass to see whether anyone was coming their way while Nick typed in the password Trev had given him. It worked and soon Nick was raking through files and folders, looking for the correct file. Eventually, it dawned on him and he clicked through to what was most recent. There he found the audio file, in all its glory. A few megabytes of solid evidence stored in wonderful MP3 format.

He opened up Trev's email and at the same time brought up his phone which contained a list of email addresses he had collected earlier that day. He attached the sound file and wrote a small explanation for the reporters below as fast as his paws would allow. As he was inputting all the addresses Judy was giving him some sort of panicked paw gesture that told him someone was coming. Nick quickly finished the address he was typing and sent off the email as he ducked behind the table with Judy who had come over as well.

Nick could hear the heavy hoofbeats of a very large mammal, and shrank behind the desk. It was only when the large figure passed the frosted glass window of the door without a second thought did Nick roll his eyes and get back to work as Judy resumed her lookout position. As Nick crawled out from under the desk and sat back at the computer he found an error in the middle of the screen. "Uh, Carrots? We might have a problem."

Judy turned and looked at Nick blinking. "What? Could you not find it?"

Nick sighed as he rubbed his muzzle, "We need another password to send this off. It's a system-wide security measure, Sylas must have gotten twitchy."

Judy's eyes widened. "Do you think it alerted anyone?"

Nick paused and stared at the screen. "I don't know. But I think refusing the request or typing in something wrong is going to shoot up a red flag for sure. I guess we're going with plan B," Nick mused as he rummaged about in his pockets for a flash drive.

Plan B, of course, was to copy the file and give it to the press directly upon the assumption that they wouldn't be able to send the file. Nick quickly found the right slot and copied the file off, the email and request sitting idly in the background as he did so. "Right, I've got it. Let's get moving," he said shutting down the computer and pocketing the file safely.

The pair stepped out of the office rather casually into the large empty corridor and started making their way down to the cells. Nick had noted their placement when visiting the quartermaster for equipment, if Trev was going to be anywhere, he'd be down there.

The trip was very uneventful, and the lobby had even cleared out. The place looked pretty deserted now making their jobs much easier. Unfortunately, there was a guard on patrol down by the cell block, a tall ram on alert. "What do you want to do about him?"

Judy simply smirked and drew her tranquilizer gun, opening the door quietly before firing a dart at the wall on the far side of the room. The ram's ears pricked up and he drew his weapon as he went to inspect the sound. As he examined the dart in the wall though he quickly found a second dart embedded in the soft tissue of his neck. Judy watched as he yanked out the dart quickly, his eyes scanning the room quickly before he eventually slumped over, fast asleep.

"Good shot," Nick commented quickly.

Judy smirked, "I could have hit him with my eyes closed. Let's go."

The pair ran past the sleeping sheep, picking up his keys on the way be before going through another door into the main cell block, where there were various animals in holding cells, one of which was Trev, looking slightly worse for wear but still okay.

Judy could see his snow white coat contained splashes of red, particularly around his facial area, but he looked fairly resilient, and his ears perked up in happiness as he saw them. "Am I glad to see you two! Did you do it?" They nodded. "Great! Now, would you kindly get us out of here?"

Judy tilted her head at the 'us'. "Aren't these guys criminals?" she asked pointing out the other cells. "No offense to you guys but-"

"They're folks like me, those who tried to speak out against Sylas. We haven't had a criminal through these cells in months," Trev said with a grin. Judy nodded and opened the cells letting all the 'rebellious' individuals out. There were seven excluding Trev, giving them a total headcount of ten.

They all started moving out but once they reached the corridor with the sleeping ram, a certain individual blocked their path. "I see someone's been telling stories outside of class."

Sylas stood there with his perfect posture in the middle of the hallway, his trademark beret and coat allowing easy recognition before even seeing his face. He was alone, at least for the time being. An extremely cocky gesture, did he really mean to take on all of them?

"Did you actually think I wouldn't find out about all this? It's not like this building doesn't have security. I spotted you two the moment you entered the building," he said with a quick point at Judy and Nick. "And to think you'd actually try to get into the office of someone I just arrested and send a file from a company computer on our network without any bypasses…That's more than desperate, that's well, crazy."

"What are you going to do Sylas? You can't beat all of us!" Judy boasted to which the tall wolf chuckled.

"While I'd love to prove you wrong little bunny I'm on a very tight schedule," he said reaching into his coat for what was assumed to be a weapon. Judy took the opportunity to fire a tranquiliser dart which Sylas dodged without a sweat. He simply chuckled as he straightened his back again and pulled out something which he kept clutched in his paw, Judy didn't quite catch what it was but she was nervous nonetheless. "At least wait till I turn my head if you're going to use something as slow as that. Now, turn around and get in your cells before this gets messy. I won't ask twice."

"He's probably unarmed, he would have pulled a gun on us by now otherwise," said Trev smirking.

"Come now Whitetail I thought we were beyond such simple things. Let's settle this without any firearms shall we?" said Sylas smirking.

"How about no?" A single gunshot run out, nearly deafening Judy as the pistol beside her ear went off and Sylas stumbled back against the wall.

"Where'd you get that?" Nick asked curiously, staring at the gun.

"I found it on the sleepy guy," he said simply as he checked the magazine. "It's not full though. Good enough."

A dark chuckling snapped them all back to their senses as Sylas stepped forward grinning. "I did, of course, bring body armour, I'm not that thick. It's pretty clear you're not going to listen to reason, so instead, I'm going to make you want to be in those little cages," he said smirking as he uncurled his fist and held up a blue pellet between two fingers.

Nick and Judy's eyes widened as they saw the familiar serum, however, they couldn't really see a way to administer it. "You know, I've always wondered what it would feel like. Is there any shred of the past self left? Or does the serum fully take over? Will I recognize friend from foe? Will I even care?"

It was the use of the letter 'I' that put Nick and Judy on alert. "What's he doing?" asked Trev, training his weapon on the wolf. But before anyone could say anything else, Sylas opened his mouth, threw back the pellet, and swallowed.

The room fell silent, Nick and Judy's mouths hung open as they intently watched the wolf. He raised his arms and stared at them as they began to tremble slightly. "I…I can feel it…Taking over…" said Sylas as he walked backwards rather unsteadily. "I can…I can feel the hrnk!" Nick and Judy gasped as the wolf fell to his knees, his beret falling from his head as he began to change fully. They could see the sense leave his eyes as his muscles and bones seemed to rearrange themselves, forgoing their evolved bipedal structure in favour of a structure more suited to a quadruped. He dropped to all fours, panting and growling as the group moved backwards away from him.

The room once again falling silent as the feral wolf took in its surroundings and howled. The howl was enough to scare most of the group, and made Judy cover her ears. After the howl 'Sylas' stared at the group and growled, his hackles raised, his tail pointed.

"Get back!" shouted Trev and many of the group retreated back into the holding cell room. Trev began to fire shot after shot at the wolf, each one missing its intended target of Sylas' head by centimetres. He managed to hit one of Sylas' legs by sheer luck as the wolf dodged about before it pounced at him. Trev slammed the door in its face and it was flung to the ground with a yelp where it got back up and glared at the door.

Trev didn't like making eye contact with the wolf and so turned around and examined the room. "Everyone okay?"

Everyone nodded or muttered a response as everyone caught their breath. "Did he just…Eat that stuff? Willingly?" Nick asked seemingly in disbelief.

Judy rolled her eyes and nodded. It seemed a little hard to believe but Sylas had just swallowed night howler serum. Without any equipment, it would be difficult to make any progress now. "Alright, who's got weapons?" Trev asked the group. Next to no one put up their paws except Nick and Judy. "Right, what have you got? Because I'm out," he said holding up his pistol, the slide stuck out of position indicating the lack of ammunition, before throwing it to the side. "Should have just taken the damn shot when I had the chance."

"I've still got my tranquilizer gun, but I've only got a few darts left," said Judy pulling out the small weapon to which Trev smiled.

"It's a bit small for me, best if you handle it. Nick?" he continued, looking towards the fox.

"I have my gun I got here. Don't have as much ammo as I used to, I meant to get more," he said with a grin holding up said weapon.

"Let's try and save that for anyone who might be on the other side, just in case. Do you think you can hit him, Judy?" Trev continued.

The bunny nodded. "Of course. Although, I'm a little worried about opening the door to get to him."

Trev turned to check on Sylas and immediately turned around with a sickened look on his face. "You'll have a good shot now. But I can assure you it won't be pleasant. Just, focus on hitting him in the head."

Judy nodded and stepped up to the door, making sure to stay out of the area it would swing by before aiming at the door. "Where is he?"

Trev checked the window again with a grimace. "You're pretty much aiming right at him. I'll open it for a moment, fire and I'll shut it again until he falls asleep. Got it?" Judy nodded and Trev readied himself. "Right, on three. One, two, three!"

The door swung open and Judy locked up as she prepared to fire, but the sight that met her eyes shocked her. There was blood staining the walls and floor, the source of which was the poor sleeping ram that was currently being torn apart by the savage grey wolf. Judy sat for a moment, just watching what was once Sylas tear into the unfortunate sheep, before a shout from Trev shook her back to her senses. "FIRE ALREADY!"

The shout alerted the wolf who turned to the open door, blood dripping from his red muzzle as he snarled through the gap. Judy fired a dart which landed in the wolf's neck on the left side before a loud slam ended the engagement. "Did you get him?" asked Trev as he stared at the bunny, who seemed locked in position, her arms raised, her grip on her weapon tight as ever. She nodded slowly as she came back to reality before sighing and holstering her weapon. They quietly waited for the wolf to fall asleep and he very quickly did, letting them all pass carefully. The grizzly sight that met them in the next room was enough to cause more than a little discomfort, one of the weaker stomached individuals was sick.

Fortunately, there was no one else around and the building was practically deserted. Most would probably be on patrol or out on duty thanks to Sylas. While the others went on ahead, Trev decided it would be best not to leave the sleeping savage wolf out in the open and so dragged him to a cell, throwing him in with far more force than was necessary, where he landed with a sickening crunch. After returning to the group who were grouped up outside the building, they all split up. Most of the captives returned to their homes while Trev, Nick, and Judy had another destination. The ZNN broadcast center.


	15. Act 3 Chapter 4

**My apologies for dropping off the grid. Life has been punching me in the face over and over lately. It's hard to write with so much on my mind, not to mention this story in particular is beginning to grate on my mind. I've kind of lost where I was going with it, and so am trying to wrap it up as soon as possible before writing this story becomes a chore instead of a hobby. Perhaps I will come back to it, when my mind is cleared and my passion is back. I set up so many arcs for future stories in this, River, Trev, Sylas' accomplices, they will return in future stories of this line, and hopefully become fleshed out further. For now, I am tired, and I wish to put this story to rest. I have one more chapter to go to round out this story. Stay tuned. Thank you all for sticking around, and enjoy the chapter. I'm sorry it isn't longer.**

* * *

Every noise, every passing individual made the trio shifty. They pressed on towards the broadcast centre, eager to end this fiasco once and for all. Judy walked ahead, determined to finish the case while Nick and Trev walked behind, keeping a good pace. "So what are we going to do after this?" said the wolf as he rubbed his arm briefly.

Judy shrugged, not even skipping a beat. "I don't know, hadn't really thought that far. Until we ruin Sylas, stop him from taking over, nothing else matters."

Nick smirked. "Once the information is there, maybe we should just stick around at the ZPD. We'll need to inform Bogo, tell him why we haven't come forward with this information, make him aware of a few locations that need to be raided. One being a certain home in the woods?"

Judy nodded. "That seems a good plan. Think he'll be there this late?"

Nick shrugged. "Worth a shot. We can also try and find some transfer paperwork for you Trev."

The wolf smiled and straightened his glasses. "I'd like that. But I think what I'd like most of all right now is a small nap. It's been a long few days."

Nick's smile deteriorated as he recalled Trev's incident. "What actually happened?"

Trev rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling softly. "Well, after I told you guys I let the two guys come up to me. They said I was under arrest, and would be taking me away. I asked for the charges, and when they had no answer I booked it as fast as I could. I think they chased me for a good twenty minutes. I was halfway to Tundratown when they finally managed to tackle me. And they were some heavy buggers too, I was almost out cold as soon as I hit the bricks."

Nick chuckled a little at that before quickening his pace, realizing Judy was beginning to lengthen the gap between them. "What about in the cell? It's hard not to see the blood, especially with your fur colour."

Trev sighed. "It wasn't very pretty. Sylas personally oversaw everything that happened to me. They had me strung up by my wrists, like this," he said miming the position he was in, his paws above his head tight together. "Long story short I was a punching bag for a few hours, let me tell you he hits like a damn truck."

Nick sighed. "And the blood? Just coughed that up huh?"

Trev shook his head. "No, worse. He used his claws for one of his swings, just the last one. Not deep enough to do damage, but enough to make it sting for ages." As Nick winced Trev chuckled. "It looks a lot worse than it felt, want to see?"

Nick nodded his head as Judy rolled her eyes ahead of them. Trev unbuttoned his shirt revealing a stained grey t-shirt underneath. As he lifted that up, baring his chest Nick gasped. The whole area was still red, stained with blood. He could quite clearly make out the scars from the claw, which ran diagonally from Trev's shoulder right down to his waist. "I don't think you will be visiting the beach or pool for quite a while."

Trev chuckled as he lowered his shirt and buttoned up his jacket once again. "Yeah, that thing will be with me for the rest of my life, but it's no big deal. At least he didn't claw anything important. I tell you, felt like he covered his claws in salt before. It stung for ages, but he didn't really do anything afterwards, just kind of left me down there."

"We're here," Judy announced as she approached a big building, its lights still on. "I'll just run in and drop this off with a reporter, give him a short run down. You two stick around just in case anything goes wrong." Both wolf and fox nodded as the rabbit retreated into the building.

"So, you two… What's the big deal?" said Trev smirking.

Nick raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh don't play dumb. It really doesn't suit you, Nick," Trev said folding his arms. "I'm just curious is all."

Nick waved a paw. "Nothing serious, just friends."

"And are you happy with that?" the arctic wolf continued, tilting his head a little.

With a laugh, Nick sat down on the steps to the building. "I just wonder sometimes how different things would have been if she hadn't shown up that day. Chance meetings are funny that way, aren't they?"

Trev raised an eyebrow. "You didn't answer my question."

The fox sighed as his voice became very monotone. "She's just a friend, a really good friend. She's been almost like a sister to me in all this time. I care about her sure, just, not like that."

Smiling Trev sat down beside Nick. "I hear you. I don't have many friends anymore. I had a bunch in school, but they all moved away and lost touch. I tried to keep things going, call on birthdays, send gifts, I never forgot anyone come the holidays. It took a little while to sink in that all my attempts were going through a one way door." Rubbing the back of his neck, Trev let out a quiet chuckle. "It sounds cliché but I was never all that popular; still ain't, but that's what I've gotten used to. Feels pretty nice to have some friends again."

Nick laughed quietly as he leaned backwards, shifting his weight onto his paws. "Don't get all sappy on me. We've still got plenty to do after all this, namely getting you into a shower."

Trev smirked and pulled at a patch of bloodied fur. "Yeah, Tundratown's a bit of a trek from here but it's not unreasonable. I could get home within the hour if I ran."

Nick tilted his head. "Why not crash at mine? We're already downtown, I think we're only a couple blocks away."

Trev chuckled. "I think I'd like that. I doubt it'll be my nice little cabin, but I'm sure I'll live. What have you-"

"Alright we're done!" came the cry of Judy as she bounded down the steps, interrupting the two. "They were a little shocked but after just a few seconds of the recording, they starting making copies faster than I thought possible. The story should be ready and on the papers by tomorrow morning."

Nick smiled. "That's great! Let's head home then," said the fox as he got up. Judy, however, shook her head tutting.

"We can't just leave it with one news station…We've gotta go get this out!" she said holding up the drive once again.

Trev tilted his head. "Didn't you give that to them?"

"Well yeah, they just made copies and gave it back. This is evidence, after all, it'll be useful when Sylas gets put on trial," replied Judy calmly as she pocketed the drive.

"With all due respect Carrots, it's really damn late! We gave the data to the station, the biggest station out there, can't we go get some sleep?" said Nick with a hopeful look on his face.

Judy shook her head. "We can't go rest now; we have work to do! Didn't you sleep this afternoon to prepare for tonight?" The facial expression that Judy got back simply said it all. "Y'know what, you boys can go get your beauty sleep, meanwhile I have important work to do." Judy was sure the joke would make them try to prove her wrong, however, the males looked at each other, smirked and started walking off.

"Night Carrots!"

"Have fun Judy!"

The rabbit stood, mouth agape as she watched them walk off into the night, joking and laughing away as she collected her thoughts. Just when she thought she was getting to understand Nick, he seemed to be able to surprise her. She simply sighed and decided to just get back to work.

Meanwhile, Nick and Trev had a quick race back to Nick's abode. Trev had a natural advantage, having longer legs meant more ground covered per stride. However, Nick was more trained and overtook Trev around the halfway point when he began to lose a lot of steam. When they arrived at the house Nick was sweating a little but Trev nearly collapsed, panting and wheezing. "How are ya doing big guy?"

"I…hah…hah…I can't do long distances…hah…give me a 100-meter dash any day…"

Nick smirked. "Endurance is a handy asset, getting tired after a little running isn't good for police work. I'd have thrashed you even harder if it wasn't so late."

"Just…Just open the damn door…I need some water…"

The fox fumbled about for his keys and eventually unlocked the door with a chuckle, quickly retrieving a glass of water for his canine companion as said wolf tried to crawl inside. Upon being offered the drink he downed it in record time and panted for a little while before looking around. "Nice place, what'd it run you?"

Nick shrugged. "Y'know honestly I don't really remember."

Trev chuckled. "Come on, it's natural to remember a purchase as big as this. Like for example, my first car ran me-"

Nick shushed him as he walked off towards his bedroom. "I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. Make yourself at home though; I'm sure you're pretty hungry. Crash on the couch whenever you feel like it."

Trev watched as Nick disappeared through the doorway, his tail being the last thing to slip out of sight before the door was closed. Trev shrugged and decided before doing anything else, he'd have a shower. It had been days since he had last had access to a nice warm shower, and his own blood had stained his fur no thanks to Sylas.

After some searching about Trev found Nick's bathroom and wandered inside. Nick's shower seemed a tad small, but Trev was still able to hop inside relatively quickly, after of course stripping down and depositing his glasses near the sink.

Trev had never been one to bother with getting the temperature of shower water perfect, truth be told he actually preferred cold showers in the morning. He found they woke him up far better than any coffee did. He lived in Tundratown for precisely the same reason, stepping into the frigid air with wet fur was enough to make any animal wake up, which was perfect for his early mornings at the department. However, despite this, he enjoyed a long warm bath at night, as it made him drowsy and helped him sleep.

He washed, scrubbed and cleaned his fur until it was back to its usual pristine white lustre, the amount of soap he had used to do so had the unfortunate side effect of making him smell like a basket of roses though. He shook himself so that he wouldn't drip all over Nick's bathroom floor before hopping out of the small shower and drying off the rest of his fur.

He stopped to look at his clothes and shrugged; they'd be filthy; he wasn't about to put them back on after such a nice shower. He contemplated wrapping himself in a towel to give himself some sort of decency but decided against it, seeing it as far too much unnecessary effort. He decided that if Nick was going to sleep he could go about 'freebird' for a little while, what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. So he grabbed his glasses and stepped out into the hallway and into the kitchen.

He walked around and rummaged about through the fox's cupboards, finding little of anything to actually eat. What he did uncover besides cobwebs and dust was a small packet of penne style pasta, untouched for a long time considering the thick layer of dust coating it. After shaking it off he examined the contents, which to the naked eye appeared fine. The expiration date frightened him a little but he figured that if the packet was sealed, the contents should be just fine if not a little less flavourful.

He opened the plastic packaging and sniffed at the contents. He couldn't smell anything off, even with his enhanced sense, and so began to boil a pot of water, seasoning it with some salt and pepper he had found before dumping the whole packet into said boiling water. He looked around for any sort of spice to help increase the flavour of the old pasta and came up with only a tiny bottle of dried oregano, easily as old as the pasta.

After a few minutes, Trev tasted the pasta and frowned. It was like eating cardboard; worse than cardboard, it was like eating air. It had so little flavour he contemplated throwing in the whole shaker of salt to have something to taste. After deciding against giving himself hypertension he plated the food, coated it in a thick layer of green oregano herb and headed through to what he assumed was the living room, splaying himself out on the couch with a loud satisfied groan.

He did have to admit, Nick had a comfy couch, far comfier than his own. He even considered it to be slightly better than his own bed. He took a moment, as he enjoyed his meal, to contemplate his freedom. He had never quite given freedom the respect it deserved. Ever since he was a cub he had been able to eat what he wanted, go where he wanted and do what he wanted. After a few days in a three-meter square cell with a disgusting pile of slop a day to eat, he began to respect his freedom a lot more.

It was only halfway through his half a decade old meal that a certain noise made his ears prick, a knock at the door. He placed down his plate and wondered who could be visiting at such a late hour. It was only when he heard the front door start to open that he began to panic and grabbed a nearby blanket, draping it over himself as he lay down on the couch, just in time to see Judy appear in the doorway. "Hey, Trev. What are you doing here?"

The wolf straightened his glasses and smiled. "Probably the same reason you are. I uh, I didn't expect you here is all. You caught me off guard."

Judy tilted her head. "Really why?" She yawned as she walked into the room proper and took in the surroundings.

Trev shook his head. "It doesn't matter. But um, there isn't really enough room for all three of us. Nick took his bed, I'm on the couch soooo…"

Judy smirked. "You mean you can't share?" she said giggling as Trev made a face, staring at her over the rims of his glasses.

"This is way too small for both of us," he said frowning. He had a point, his hind legs were dangling over the arm of the couch a little, and he wasn't even lying down.

Judy sighed. "Just scoot your legs up. I'm too tired to really care at this point," she said as she poked at his legs.

Trev chuckled nervously. "That might not be a good idea."

The tired rabbit tilted her head. "Why not? It's a comfy couch, kinda big. You can just scoot up," she said hopping up onto the couch and by extension Trev's stomach.

"Well, I uh, had a shower when I got here. I didn't have enough time to wash my clothes and well, Nick doesn't have anything in my size short of the curtains…" Trev tried to explain, carefully dancing around the point.

Fortunately, Judy was able to fill in the dots. Her eyes averted themselves a little and stared at the ceiling as she immediately got a little nervous and uncomfortable. "So, um, under there…You're…"

Trev nodded.

Judy jumped off of him so fast it felt like he had just gotten punched in the gut. "Sorry! I uh…Alright, I'll just…Do something over here I guess…" she said as she stole a pillow and propped it against the wall in the corner, dragging over a small blanket. Trev meanwhile was coughing and spluttering, a paw held over his gut. "I met up with everyone who'd listen. Sylas will be ruined come tomorrow."

Trev relaxed again and sighed as he leaned down. "Glad to hear it. I didn't expect we'd have something this…anti-climactic."

Judy tilted her head as she made herself comfortable in the corner. "What do you mean?"

The wolf shrugged as he deposited his glasses on a nearby table, bringing his half eaten plate of food back up to his lap. "I dunno, I just thought it'd be more like big movies. A big bad terrorist trying to take over, and he's going to be ruined by the press and arrested. Seems so quiet."

Judy giggled. "Not everything's like the movies. In fact, nearly nothing is. Get some sleep, we need to be up bright and early for the morning news."

Trev smiled. "Just as soon as I finish my food. Night Judy."

Judy grinned happily as she snuggled under the blanket. "Night Trev."


	16. Hiatus Explanation

Hello everyone, long time no see! I do apologise for the long hiatus but I've been extremely busy and have had lots to do. Unfortunately the stories I'm currently writing, I just don't have the drive for them anymore. I've outright cancelled Ailing City, and Blazing Darkness, where I'll be posting this, is going to be placed on hiatus for now. I feel like these larger projects are really spiralling out of control. Blazing Darkness isn't really the idea I had imagined at first, I barely even recognise it as my own writing. I promise that in future, I'll revisit Zootopia and write a lot more, but for now I would like to explore other stories and ideas. Perhaps you'll come along, visit my profile and explore some of them.

Thank you for your understanding.


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